


Bright College Days.

by steeleye



Series: Military Faith. [9]
Category: Animal House, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, NCIS
Genre: Action, F/F, Humour, crossover fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-14
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-08-30 23:18:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 53,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8553532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steeleye/pseuds/steeleye
Summary: A Military Faith story; after recovering from her wounds, the army thinks its time for Faith to improve her education. Faber College has a lot to learn about Chief Warrant Officer Faith Lehane.





	1. Chapter 1

Bright College Days.

By Steeleye.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, NCIS or ‘Animal House’, neither do I claim authorship of any scripted words that may feature in this fic. I write these stories for fun not profit.

 **Crossover:** National Lampoon’s ‘Animal House’ and ‘NCIS’.

 **Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar:** Written in glorious UK-English which is different to US-English.

 **Timeline:** Set in September 2008 after the events depicted in ‘We’ll all go together when we go’.

 **Words:** Nineteen Chapters each of 3000+ words.

 **Warnings:** Don’t run out of beer.

 **Summary:** A Military Faith story; after recovering from her wounds, the army thinks its time for Faith to improve her education. Faber College has a lot to learn about Chief Warrant Officer Faith Lehane.

0=0=0=0

_Bright college days, O carefree days that fly,  
To thee we sing with our glasses raised on high.  
Let's drink a toast as each of us recalls  
Ivy-covered professors in ivy-covered halls._

_Turn on the spigot,  
Pour the beer and swig it,  
And gaudeamus igit-ur._

‘Bright College Days’, Tom Lehrer.

0=0=0=0

**Faber College, Virgina, September, 2008.**

Standing there in the middle of the court yard, Faith realised she’d not been this confused since her first introduction to army life eight years ago at Fort Knight in Oregon. Turning on the spot she watched all the other freshman milling about and realised what was making her feel so uncomfortable. It was the disorder; she couldn’t help thinking that a couple of drill sergeants could get this mob detailed off to where they were supposed to be in about thirty seconds flat. Hell; she could do it by herself in fifteen!

This was the other thing that was making her feel unhappy, she wasn’t in control; she’d been a Chief for a year now and was used to people jumping when she growled…or at least doing what she told them. It seemed to her that although she’d been promoted to Chief Warrant Officer (after being shot yet again) here she was little more than a buck private that no one was going to listen to, at least not for the time being.

Back in 2000, Faith had woken from a coma with no idea of who she was other than her name. Two months later not knowing what else to do with her life she’d joined the US Army. That’s when the fun had really started. Apart from all the army stuff, tours of duty in Germany, Yemalia, Kuwait and Iraq, there was some real weird stuff like the things that she now knew really were vampires, zombies, alien hunters and demons. Add to this a strange Ranger officer who turned up whenever something bad was about to happen; that and a transfer to a very undercover unit that went after monsters. After all that and being shot by a sniper having just saved the world from nuclear destruction, a year in college should be easy duty. Somehow Faith knew that it wouldn’t work out that way.

Her promotion (a jump of six or seven grades) and transfer from the MP’s to the Army Special Investigation Division; had come after her little adventure in Jacksonville, Virgina. Somehow she’d found herself helping the 613th Independent Ranger Company (commanded by the mysterious Major Riley Finn) hunt down extra terrestrial monsters. It was during this mission that she discovered that she was some sort of science experiment that had gone wrong. An insane professor called Walsh had been trying to make ‘super-soldiers’ for the government and Faith was one of her little experiments that hadn’t quite turned out right.

While the ‘super-soldier’ story explained some of the stuff in Faith’s life; the super strength and the other enhanced powers. It didn’t explain a couple of things that had happened just after she’d woken up in Sunnydale General; like the two detectives that had given her a load of money and documentation before advising her to leave town. Faith couldn’t help feeling that there was more to her back story than she’d been told; like why was she so sure that the dead Mayor of Sunnydale was her father and why did she sometimes dream about a short blonde woman coming after her with a knife? 

Sighing, Faith shook her head, all these questions needed answers but it didn’t look as if she’d be able to find any of them soon. Perhaps after she’d done her year at college and got back to her unit she’d be able to spend some time investigating her own past. In the mean time she’d be making like a student (without the drinking (too much), taking drugs or vomiting). Looking up and smiling for the first time that morning, the butterflies in her stomach having disappeared; Faith thought that maybe a year spent studying Criminology could be fun. The course would cover forensics, psychology, sociology, profiling, police procedures, management, investigative techniques, interviewing and so on. Her Army MP training had covered some of this, but it mainly focused on field techniques: hand to hand, take downs, handling a perp, urban shooting techniques (how to fire a weapon while minimizing collateral damage, such as in a hostage situation), defensive driving, offensive driving, negotiation and things like securing a crime scene.

“Listen up freshman!” called a female voice from behind Faith, turning she saw a woman who was obviously a member of staff. “We’re doing this by folder colour, if you haven’t got a yellow folder you’re in the wrong place, you should be up by Elm House.”

Looking at the folder that contained her ‘joining orders’, Faith sighed; of course she was in the wrong place her folder was green. Searching through her documentation she found a map of the campus; studying it for a moment she saw that Elm House was about a hundred metres east of her present location. Turning she started to push her way through the crowds of milling students. During her short trip she was approached by at least a dozen representatives of various pressure groups. They wanted to know how she felt about the war (Faith just smiled and kept her mouth firmly closed), or women’s rights (again Faith kept her opinions to herself, no one had ever tried to infringe on her rights…and survived), or if she’d accepted Jesus as her personal saviour. Personally Faith put her faith in a loaded M4 or an Assault Shotgun, but she smiled at the earnest young woman who’d given her the flyer and said she’d think about it.

0=0=0=0

~Two or three hours later.~

Kicking open the door to her room, Faith had her first really pleasant surprise of the day. Walking into the room she dumped her gear on the bed before going back and closing the door and shutting out the noise caused by the other confused freshman in the corridor outside. Hell, she thought, this was pretty cool; she’d been assigned a large room with its own bathroom (no trips to the communal washroom in the middle of the night for her). There was a bed, desk, chest of drawers, easy chair and a couple of built in closets. Out of the window she had a good view of the sports field and the woods and mountains in the distance.

Glancing at her watch, Faith noted she had just over an hour to square away her gear, shower and change before she had to be at the first of her interviews. The Army, in its wisdom had decided that she couldn’t just spend the year studying, oh no, that would be _too_ easy. In her copious spare time she’d be expected to help out with the Joint Regular Officers Training Corps, paying particular attention to the Army platoon, but otherwise helping out as needed. Shrugging her shoulders resignedly, Faith set about her tasks of unpacking and making herself presentable for her interview with her new commanding officer. Time was a-wasting and she needed to move it!

0=0=0=0

**JROTC, Faber College.**

Knocking on the office door Faith waited for someone to call her in; taking the few seconds she had left she checked over her Class B’s, including her brand new Ranger tabs, one last time.

“Come!” came a male voice from inside the office; taking a deep breath, Faith took hold of the door handle, opened the door and walked in.

“Chief Warrant Officer Lehane reporting Sir!” Faith stood at attention and saluted.

Standing behind his desk, Marine Captain Lemay returned her salute and held out his hand, uncertainly Faith shook the man’s hand; she was still unused to officers treating her as an equal.

“Ms Lehane, Chief,” The big, African-American Marine officer smiled warmly at her, “it’s an honour to meet you, please,” Lemay gestured to a chair as he sat down himself, “sit.”

“Thank-you, Sir,” Faith sat down and smoothed out her skirt nervously, she hated formal interviews.

“I’ve been reading your file, Chief,” Lemay smiled widely, “very impressive, you’ve seen some action and I see you’ve earnt your Ranger tabs,” Lemay pointed to the badge on Faith’s shoulder, “quite an achievement for a man let alone a woman.”

“Yes Sir,” Faith nodded as she checked out the medal ribbons on the Captain’s chest; she saw the Silver and Bronze Stars just like hers, however where as she had four Purple Hearts the Captain only had one; for some reason this made her feel slightly more relaxed.

“Yemalia, Kuwait, Iraq,” Lemay read through the places Faith had seen action, “and I see you went ashore on Nunca-Aterriza with the First of the Twelfth. Odd to see an Army Staff Sergeant doing an assault landing with the Marines,” Lemay raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Major screw up Sir,” Faith replied, “a buddy and myself got ourselves transferred to Camp Lejeune by mistake we ended up going in with the Recon Platoon.”

“Anyway it says here that you an’ your buddy did some damn good work,” Lemay turned another page in Faith’s file, “they were sorry to see you go.”

“To be honest Sir I was sorry to go, but I’m Army,” Faith explained, she’d also been in a relationship with her ‘buddy’ Corporal Brenda Mitchell at the time, so she’d not wanted to be separated from her friend who’d really wanted to get away from the Marines.

“Personal question,” Lemay put down Faith’s file and steepled his fingers, “did you by any chance meet a Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway while you were at Lejeune?”

“My Platoon Leader, Sir,” Faith replied, “good man, learnt a lot from him.”

Gunnery Sergeant Thomas Highway had also gone a long way to changing Faith’s preconceptions about the Marine Corps. Prior to her posting to Camp Lejeune, Faith’s opinion of the Marines had been about as low as it could be. This was due to four of them trying to rape her in Kuwait when she’d been a corporal. Of course they’d not succeeded as she’d put them all in hospital. The incident had caused her to be transferred to the Third Infantry Division up near Baghdad; the rest, as they say, was history and a growing collection of medal ribbons.

“How is the old bastard?” Lemay relaxed and sat back in his chair as he waited for Faith’s reply.

“We still keep in touch, last I heard he’s fine, he’s retired now, Sir,” Faith put two and two together and came to the conclusion that Captain Lemay knew the Gunnery Sergeant from somewhere.

“Yeah,” Lemay shook his head and chuckled at some memories, “he musta been about ready to retire. One day, Chief, I’ll tell you some tall stories about Gunney Highway and a certain young Butter-ball Lieutenant who couldn’t find his ass with both hands!”

“I’ll look forward to that, Sir,” Faith smiled politely.

“Now on to business,” Lemay quickly changed back to being her commanding officer, “I better tell you the news, an’ it ain’t good, Chief.”

“When is it ever, Sir?” Faith shrugged. 

“We haven’t got an Army officer or senior non-com,” Lemay explained, “so the Army Platoon has been allowed to slip.”

“None at all?” Faith asked incredulously.

“Shortages, Chief,” Lemay shrugged, “as a result the Army Platoon has been under the command of the senior cadet, a Cadet Lieutenant named Douglas C Neidermyer.” Lemay shook his head sadly, “He’s the grandson of General Douglas A Neidermyer, you’ve heard of him?”

“With respect, Sir,” Faith scowled, just for once why couldn’t things be easy? “Nothing good.”

“You don’t have to dance round the subject with me, Chief,” Lemay told Faith, “Neidermyer senior was a butcher, got men killed needlessly in Vietnam. His grandson has the makings of being another complete asshole.”

“Don’t worry Sir,” Faith smiled a predators smile as she thought about what she could put this guy through, “I can deal.”

“I hope you can, Chief,” Lemay replied sadly, “last person to try ended up counting Polar Bears in Alaska.”

“I’m fairly sure my C/O won’t let that happen, Sir,” Faith was confident that Colonel Mann and General Brittles wouldn’t let her be posted to Alaska and anyway, what was wrong with Alaska? Maybe there all the weird stuff that kept happening to her would stop.

“Well,” Lemay stood up signalling that the interview was over, “I’ll wish you luck in your first independent command Chief.”

“Thank-you, Sir,” Faith stood up and shook hands with the Captain as he showed her to the door.

“I’ll have your people’s files sent to your office,” Lemay explained.

“I have an office?” Faith looked at the Captain in surprise.

“Sure,” Lemay grinned, “ask Gunny Leeka he’ll show you where everything is.”

“Thanks Sir,” Faith was feeling just a little out of her depth; give her a bunch of Iraqi insurgents or even some weird monster or alien and she could deal, but all this sounded like politics; she was beginning to see there was more reasons than just learning to her being sent to college.

“Oh and a word to the wise, Chief,” Lemay whispered just before Faith opened the door to go.

“Sir?” Faith repressed the sigh that had been building up in her chest.

“Dean Wormer,” Lemay looked at the floor for a moment.

“The Dean, Sir?” Faith almost dreaded what Lemay was going to say next.

“Yeah, the Dean,” Lemay seemed to be choosing his words very carefully, “he seems to look on the JROTC as his own personal army. We go along with him, up to a point,” Lemay shrugged, “politics you know?”

“I think I do Sir,” Faith replied levelly.

“If he asks you to do anything you’re not comfortable with, come and see me,” Lemay told her, “anytime day or night, Gunny Leeka will give you my contact details.”

“T-Thank-you, Sir,” Faith saluted as she wondered what she’d got herself into; perhaps it wasn’t too late to go back to being an MP Staff Sergeant at Fort Shaw.

0=0=0=0

~A little time later.~ 

Having stopped off at her room to change back into civilian clothes, Faith had tracked down the cafeteria and had something to eat. While she ate she studied the map of the campus committing most of it to memory. When she looked at the map and studied it carefully she found the campus had been laid out fairly logically, as long as the map was up to date she felt confident that she’d be able to find her way around with the minimum of confusion. This was important, not only had she got an interview with the Dean in, she checked her watch, forty-five minutes she also had to find the college book store and buy her text books for the courses she was on.

Deciding that the book store was probably packed with other new students buying their books, she determined to head on back to her room before going to see the Dean. As she left the cafeteria, Faith noticed what appeared to be some sort of demonstration going on outside, she paused to watch for a moment. About fifty metres away stood a crowd of chanting students waving anti-war banners. Faith shrugged, if these assholes wanted the war to end so badly, maybe they should enlist and help make it end. Not wishing to get involved, she shrugged again and headed on back to her room.

0=0=0=0

**The Office of Dean Vernon Wormer, Faber College.**

“Warrant Officer Lehane!” Dean Wormer jumped up from behind his desk as Faith was shown into the his office, “Or should I just call you Ms Lehane?”

The dean held out his hand to Faith which she duly shook before sitting down at the Dean’s invitation.

“Actually, sir,” Faith studied the Dean as she spoke, typical upper, middle ranking bureaucrat she thought, “I prefer Miss Lehane, I like to leave my rank behind when I’m out of uniform and I hate being called ‘Mizz’,” Faith smiled, “it makes me sound like a bee.”

“Of course, of course,” Dean Wormer settled himself back down in his chair, “I asked you to come and meet me today so we can get to know each other a little.” Wormer rested his hands on the desk in front of him.

Over the next few minutes Wormer told Faith some of the history of Faber college and how it was run. For her part Faith sat and listened attentively and nodded her head every now and again to prove she’d not fallen asleep and was in fact paying attention.

“As you’re studying here,” Dean Wormer continued after a short pause, “and while you hold a position of authority over at least some of the students you may find yourself torn in your loyalties to the students and the college.”

“Dean,” Faith smiled, “I’m quite aware of where my loyalties lie.”

They lay with her unit, the army and ultimately to the United States of America.

“Yes I’m sure you do,” nodded the Dean, “but from time to time I may ask you to do something for the college.”

“Sir,” Faith sat up straight in her seat, “I’ve no problem with that as long as it doesn’t interfere with my other duties…or loyalties.”

“Of course,” the Dean smiled insincerely, “rest assured I’d never ask you to do anything you are uncomfortable with…”

There was a short and uncomfortable pause in the conversation before Faith asked; “If there was nothing else, Dean?”

“No,” Dean Wormer stood up and held out his hand again, “I just wanted to make sure we knew where we stood.”

“Yeah, right,” Faith stood and took the Dean’s hand in her own; unable to resist the temptation she squeezed just a little too hard making Wormer wince. “If you’ll excuse me I have things to do.”

“Of course, of course,” Wormer retrieved his hand and surreptitiously tried to massage some feeling back into it, “I’ll not detain you any longer.”

Watching Faith shut the door behind her, Wormer sat back down in his chair and tried to shake the feeling back into his hand; my god, he thought, that woman was strong. He frowned as he stared at the paintings on his wall, the interview hadn’t gone quite as well as he’d hoped. He’d hoped to recruit Warrant Officer Lehane into his never ending war with Delta House. Lehane was obviously one of these uptight military types who thought of themselves as above politics. Well, he’d see about that; he’d see how she felt after actually meeting the Deltas. 

A plan started to form in his head, first he’d send her to Omega house; that was where that Neidermyer boy lived, he was army so Lehane should hit it off with him. Having visited Omega she’d see how a well run, disciplined fraternity was organised. Then he’d send her to Delta. One hour in the company of those Delta degenerates would soon have the stiff necked _Miss_ Lehane begging him to let her help kick those Delta perverts off college grounds.

0=0=0=0


	2. Chapter 2

2.

**Faber College Book Store.**

Walking into the book store, Ashley Simmons looked around hoping to see someone she knew. A smile quickly spread across her face when she saw her friend Liza Taylor coming towards her.

“Here,” Liza offered the basket she was carrying to Ashley so she could put her books in with her own.

“Thanks,” Ashley sighed with relief as she slipped her books in with Liza’s; it was nice to see a friendly face, the day had been so overpowering. 

“Introduction to Psychology,” Liza muttered as she ran her eyes along the books on the shelf, both girls were taking Psychology as part of there course. “Oh! Up there,” Liza pointed to some books balanced precariously on a top shelf.

“I’ll get ‘em,” Ashley volunteered, she looked up at the books, “Hey this store discriminates against short people, y’know that don’t you?” Ashley was only a little over five-foot-two.

“Oh!” Liza replied with a knowing smile, “I think there’s a protest about that next week.”

Reaching up Ashley stumbled and managed to knock the books from their perch and onto the head of a dark haired woman who'd been squatting down looking at some books on the bottom shelf.

“OH!” Ashley cried out as she watched the books bounce from the woman’s head onto the floor. “Oh god, I’m so sorry!”

“Say what!?” Faith pushed herself to her feet as she rubbed her head where the books had hit her.

Ashley found herself looking into the brown eyes of a very attractive brunette in her mid to late twenties.

“Yeah,” Faith pushed her hair from her face and looked down a little at the pretty girl with the honey-blonde hair who’d just tried to brain her with a psychology text book.

“I’m so…” Ashley started to apologise again, “…the books were just too high and then everything was bad.”

“Okay, no permanent brain damage I think, here let me give you a hand,” Faith found herself smiling at the girl’s embarrassment as she bent to help her retrieve the books. “Lets put a few of these down here,” Faith slipped the books onto an empty and lower shelf as the girl took a book for her friend and herself.

“So,” Faith found she didn’t want the short girl to go away just yet, “are ya girls taking Psychology or do ya just wanna murder me?”

“Uh-huh,” the short blonde said before realising what she’d implied, “I-I mean the first one!”

“I’m taking criminology,” Faith explained trying to put the short girl at her ease, “so I expect this’ll be the last chance ya get to try an’ assassinate me.” Faith paused before speaking again, “Sorry I forgot to say in all the confusion, I’m Faith Lehane.”

“Liza Taylor,” announced the other girl before pointing to Faith’s failed murderess, “and this is my friend Ashley Simons, we’re here on a Navy Scholarship.”

“Midshipmen?” Faith asked with a smile.

“Yeah, how’d…” Liza began but Faith cut her off.

“I’m really Chief Lehane, US Army,” Faith explained quietly, “I’ll be helping out at the JROTC, so I expect I’ll be seeing you around after all.”

Picking up her books, Faith smiled at the girls before heading off to pay for her purchases.

“Oh that’s just great,” Ashley sulked, “only been here a day and I’ve tried to kill a senior, army non-com!”

“Don’t sweat it, girlfriend,” Liza told her friend, “I don’t think you’ll be in any trouble.”

“Why?” Ashley didn’t sound anywhere near as sure as her friend.

“Oh,” Liza smirked, “if you didn’t notice then I’m not gonna tell you.”

“Tell me what!?” Ashley watched Liza’s back as she moved along the bookshelves, “What’s going on, huh?”

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s Room, Potter Hall, later that night.**

It was about one o’clock in the morning when Faith’s spooky super-powers woke her up. Groaning she rolled over on her bed and knew with a certainty that could not be denied that if she didn’t get up right now she’d be in big trouble. Rolling out from between her warm covers, she arranged her pillows before pulling her duvet over them to make it look as if she was still in bed. Padding across the room on bare feet she stood to one side of the door and waited. Mere seconds later two masked figures burst into her room clutching fire extinguishers.

Laughing and yelling as they played the CO2 fire extinguishers over Faith’s empty bed, the two youths didn’t notice her come up behind them. Reaching out, Faith knocked their heads together sending them tumbling to the floor where they lay semi-conscious. Sighing heavily, she took hold of the collars of their jackets and dragged them out of her room and into the corridor. Looking up and down the passageway, she checked that it was clear before dragging the two sleeping ‘firemen’ towards the main stairs. Once out on the landing, Faith used their belts and shoe laces to tie them to the banisters. Pulling off their masks she slapped their faces until they woke up.

“Nice try, fellas,” she told them before stuffing their masks into their mouths.

Satisfied with her work, Faith stood up straight, she yawned and headed back to her bed. Once in her room she closed and locked the door before climbing back into bed. Within seconds she was fast asleep.

0=0=0=0

**Hunter Lecture Theatre, the following morning.**

Yawning slightly from the effects of the previous night’s excitement, Faith sat at the front of the lecture theatre. She’d arrived early wanting to get a good seat and wishing to show the right sort of attitude. Although she couldn’t remember going to school, Faith realised that she must have done so at some point in her life. However, she also got the feeling that she’d not exactly been an ‘A’ student. In fact her ignorance of subjects that appeared to be common knowledge amongst her army buddies had caused her more than a little embarrassment over the years.

Seeing college as an opportunity to put all those embarrassing silences behind her, Faith had decided to apply herself with a single minded determination to her studies that would astound her instructors. Being quick to learn, she usually only had to be told or shown something once; and on the odd occasion she did make a mistake she never made it again after it had been pointed out to her. But, the one thing she worried about was that everything she’d been taught while she’d been in the army was practical stuff. Even when she’d been on her MP course at Fort Leonard Wood the book learning she’d had there all had practical, real-life, applications.

Watching the lecturer come into the hall, Faith noted that no one called anyone to attention or, indeed even stopped talking until the lecturer had got to the front of the theatre. Putting down his mug of coffee, he turned to face the eager young faces of his class with a bored expression. This was obviously not the first time he’d done this.

“The point of this course,” Professor Riegert began in a slightly bored voice, “is not to critique popular American culture…”

It was about at this point, Faith realised that she was in the wrong lecture theatre. Even she could see that Popular American Culture had little or nothing to do with ‘An Introduction to Profiling’ which was the lecture she was supposed to be attending at this very moment.

“…it is not to pick at it, or look down on it,” continued Riegert in a monotone as Faith turned in her seat and looked for an escape route. “And it is not to watch videos for credit.”

The students laughed quietly, while the professor didn’t even crack a smile. Faith on the other hand was cursing herself for being so eager and sitting down at the front of the class (not a mistake she intended to make again). If only she’d sat at the back she could use her super-powers and all the stuff she’d learnt in the army to quietly leave the room. After all she’d sneaked up on Iraqi insurgents, leaving a room unnoticed was easy by comparison…if she’d sat at the back.

Now if she got up and left, she just knew that by the end of the day she’d be known around campus as the, ‘dumb army chick who didn’t even know which lecture to go to’. As a nickname it was pretty long but it was likely to hang around her neck like a millstone. Slumping down in her seat, Faith resigned herself to having to sit through the lecture. Another thought hit her a moment later; if she was here that meant she was missing the lecture she was supposed to be in. Suddenly fighting for her life against Iraqi insurgents who were intent of doing her bodily harm seemed like the easy option.

“The point is to examine…”

“Hey, is this class is full yet?” Although the words were whispered they came clearly to Faith’s ears as if they’d been shouted out loud.

“…and there are two people talking at once,” Professor Riegert announced to the class, “I know that one of them is me,” he stopped pacing back and forth, put down his coffee mug and looked up into the audience, “and the other is…a blonde girl…you!” He pointed towards the rear of the lecture theatre, “Blonde girl, stand up.”

Turning in her seat like seventy-five percent of the other people in the theatre, Faith saw a short blonde girl stand up near the back of the class (just the sort of place Faith was now wishing she’d sat). Her extra sharp eyes allowed Faith to see who the professor’s target was. Much to Faith’s surprise she saw it was Ashley Simmons, the girl who’d tried to brain her with the psychology books in the book-store.

“I’m very excited to hear what you have to say that’s worth interrupting my lecture for,” Faith noted the sarcasm creeping into the Riegert’s voice. 

“I was just asking,” Ashley began nervously, “if this class was full…if I could still sign up.”

Turning, the lecturer picked up a clipboard from off his desk and waved it above his head.

“If your name isn’t on this sheet,” he said with increasing derision, “then you’re wasting everyone’s time…are you on the sheet?”

It was at this point that Faith decided she didn’t like Professor Riegert; there was no need to humiliate the girl. He could just tell her no and ask her to leave; instead he seemed to be determined to degrade the girl in front of the class.

“T-they told me that if I…” Ashley tried to explain herself but the Riegert wouldn’t let her finish.

“Do you understand?” He asked raising his voice, “You are sucking the energy from everyone in this room. _They_ came here to learn…now, get out!”

Faith shifted in her seat and fought down the urge to rip this guy a new one.

“I didn’t mean to…suck,” Ashley’s words although spoken quietly came to Faith’s ears as clearly as if she’d been sitting next to the girl.

“LEAVE!” This time the Riegert yelled as Ashley collected up her books and edged her way towards the exit, “Thank-you,” said the lecturer in a more normal tone as the other students sniggered.

In an instant, Faith realised she now had the advantage, not only could she make her own tactical withdrawal, she could also fight a successful rearguard action to cover her retreat.

“Hey, dickwad,” Faith stood up with insolent slowness; she wanted out of this place so she didn’t much care what she said, “that make ya feel all big an’ powerful?” The students in the hall gasped in shock, but Faith noticed a few giggles in amongst the quiet gasps. “Does raggin’ on a kid who can’t defend herself give ya a great big hard-on or something?”

The Riegert turned towards Faith with surprising speed.

“How dare you…” 

“I dare,” Faith gave the lecturer a smile that turned his blood to ice water and shut him up in an instant, “coz I’m sooo much better than you are,” and she had the medals to prove it, “asshole.”

“What’s your name?” demanded the lecturer finding his voice hiding behind his desk, “I’ll report you to the Dean!”

“Be my guest,” Faith walked slowly passed the lecturer swinging her hips provocatively, “the name’s Lehane, Faith Lehane…an’ me an’ the Dean are like that…” Faith held up her crossed fingers, “an’ that’s me on top!”

This last comment drew an even louder burst of laughter from the students.

“Get OUT!” Riegert yelled while pointing at the door to help Faith on her way.

“Hey,” Faith drawled, “I’m goin’, don’t get ya panties in a bunch.”

Walking slowly from the room, Faith could feel the lecturer’s eyes trying to burn holes in her back, she could also feel the barely suppressed amusement of the student body. Faith wasn’t particularly worried that this would come back and bite her on the butt. After looking at all the flyers she’d picked up the previous day she knew all the hot topics around the collage, all the right buttons to push. If this ever got to the Dean’s office, she suspected that all she’d have to do was to use a magic word like ‘sexism’ and it would all be brushed under the carpet. Something told her that this probably wasn’t the first time that Riegert had ragged on some girl, he looked the type. Finding herself out in the corridor, Faith turned her head at the sound of a quiet sob from just down the passageway.

“Hey, kid!” Faith called seeing Ashley leaning against the wall dabbing at her eyes with a tissue, she hurried over to where the teenager stood, “Hey, don’t sweat it, kid. I know that guy’s type, he’s an asshole.”

“Yeah,” Ashley looked at Faith with tear reddened eyes, “that’s easy for you to say…” not quite knowing how to address Faith, Ashley went for, “…ma’am.”

“Hey, out of uniform its Faith okay?” being called ‘ma’am’ still felt odd to Faith after so many years of telling people not to call her ‘Ma’am’.

“Sure thing, ma…Faith,” Ashley sniffed.

“You got somewhere ya should be?” Faith sometimes amazed herself at how responsible she’d become over the last few of years.

“No,” Ashley shook her head.

“Well I have,” Faith grinned, “I’ve got to find the lecture I’m supposed to be in…”

“You mean…?” Ashley looked at Faith as if she was some kind of goddess.

“Yeah, I was in the wrong lecture hall,” Faith shrugged resignedly, “years of map reading an’ I still get lost.” Faith started to walk along the corridor with Ashley tagging along next to her. “Look, Ashley,” Faith surprised herself by using a ‘sisterly’ tone of voice, “you shouldn’t let assholes like him screw with you, okay? If ya goin’ in the Navy ya gonna meet worse than him.”

“Yeah I know,” Ashley nodded, “I’ve got to toughen up,” she smiled at Faith, “I’m not usually like this, it’s just what with everything, being all new an’all.”

“Look,” Faith stopped and looked the girl in the eye, “I’ve gotta go,” Faith gestured towards another lecture hall which she hoped was the right one, “if ya ever need to talk I’m over in Potter Hall, room two-one-five, okay?”

“Thanks,” Ashley called as Faith headed for the door to the lecture theatre.

“Five by five, kid,” Faith called back.

Bursting into the lecture hall, Faith found herself the centre of attention for about twenty pairs of eyes.

“Hey, man,” Faith looked at the lecturer, “like sorry I’m late, I got lost.” Faith noticed the lecturer start to open his mouth, “you wanna make something of it?”

“Erm, no,” the lecturer guy was a lot younger and cuter than Riegert, “I was just going to suggest you take a seat so we can get on.”

“Yeah, cool,” Faith replied a little taken aback; taking a seat she sat back and started to listen to the lecturer, college life looked as if it could be interesting.

0=0=0=0

**Dean Wormers office.**

Standing at his office window Dean Wormer watched as students passed by on the street outside going to and from lectures. Behind him, on the other side of his desk stood Greg Marmalard the President of Omega House and possibly the biggest sycophant in the entire student body.

“Greg,” Wormer began solemnly, “what is the worst fraternity on this campus?”

“Well, that would be hard to say, sir,” Marmalard replied hedging his bets as to which way the Dean was going to jump today, “They’re each outstanding in their own special way…”

“Cut the bullshit, son,” Wormer turned away from the window to face Greg, “I’ve got their disciplinary files right here.”

Walking back to his desk, Wormer picked up a large file stuffed to overflowing with pieces of paper; he opened it at random and studied its contents for a moment.

“Who dumped a whole truckload of fizzies into the swim meet?” Wormer asked rhetorically. “Who delivered the medical school cadavers to the alumni dinner?” Shutting the file Wormer gave a long suffering sigh, “Every Halloween the trees are filled with underwear. Every spring the toilets explode…”

“You’re talking about Delta, sir,” Greg pointed out feeling the need to contribute in some small way.

“Of course I’m talking about Delta, you imbecile!” Wormer turned his head slowly until he was looking directly at Greg. “This year it’s going to be different…this year we’re going to grab the bull by the balls and kick those degenerates off campus!”

“What do you intend to do sir?” Greg shrugged helplessly, “Delta’s already on probation.”

“They are?” Wormer frowned.

“Yes sir,” confirmed Greg.

“Oh…” Wormer was at a loss at what to do for a moment until he had a brilliant idea, “…then from this moment they’re on double secret probation!”

“Double secret probation, sir?” Greg asked uncertainly.

“There is a little know codicil in the Faber College Constitution,” Wormer explained slowly, “which gives the Dean almost unlimited power to preserve order in time of Campus emergency.” Wormer stood up and gazed unseeingly over Greg’s head as he imagined a Faber without Delta House. “Find me a way to revoke Delta’s charter…” Wormer dropped his gaze until he was staring right at Greg who swallowed and adjusted his tie nervously, “You live next door,” Wormer pointed out, “put Neidermyer on it, he’s a sneaky little bastard just like you, right?”

Not knowing how to respond Greg kept his own counsel.

“The time has come for someone to put his foot down…” Wormer explained, “…and that foot is me!”

0=0=0=0


	3. Chapter 3

3.

_Here's to parties we tossed,  
To the games that we lost,  
We shall claim that we won them some day._

_To the girls young and sweet,  
To the spacious back seat  
Of our roommate's beat up Chevrolet._

*: ‘Bright College Days’; Tom Lehrer.

**Omega House.**

Standing on the sidewalk, Faith looked up at the smart, white, colonial style house. Noting the fraternity badge above the door, she took a moment or two to check the place out. The building was in a good state of repair with no shingles missing off the roof or broken windows, the house looked as if it was recently painted and there were flowers and bushes growing around the building as well as a neatly tended lawn. Turning her head slightly she watched as a young, smartly dressed couple walked up to the door, knocked and were allowed entrance.

Looking down at herself, Faith felt decidedly under dressed; she wore jeans, a blouse and a jacket just the sort of thing she’d wear to a party these days (her days of tiny skirts and revealing tops were long past) and the Dean’s note had said this was a party. To her eyes this looked like a formal function, rather like the ones she found herself attending (with increasing regularity as she worked her way up the Army’s hierarchy) on and off base. However at those functions she could and did wear uniform. But not here, she’d decided that wearing uniform was inappropriate for what she’d been told was a student party.

The Dean had sent her a note asking her to check out the parties being held for the new membership of both the Omega and Delta fraternities. Wondering what the Dean’s real agenda was Faith had gone along telling herself that she needed to meet the other students sometime and recon was always useful. Sighing heavily, she started to walk up the garden path towards the door. As she got closer to the house her super-ears picked out the sounds of a piano playing and the chatter of a large number of people talking inside. This didn’t sound like any party she’d been to. Climbing the stairs in front of the house, she raised her hand and knocked, the door opened almost immediately.

“Hi there,” the guy who’d answered the door was tall and sported a military style haircut, “I’m Doug Neidermyer, Omega membership chairman,” he held out his hand to Faith who noticed the slight look of consternation on his face.

“Faith Lehane,” Faith replied as she took the guy’s hand and shook it; looking up into Neidermyer’s eyes Faith saw him for what he was, another Lt Underpants.

Lt Underpants, Faith couldn’t remember the guy’s real name now, had been her first Platoon Leader in Iraq. He’d tried to get the entire platoon killed on several occasions but had failed only to get himself killed during an ambush. This was on the same convoy where Faith had earnt herself a Silver Star. This Neidermyer guy was younger than Underpants, he wore an expensive yachting blazer and a silk cravat, but that didn’t hide the fact that this was the ‘asshole in the making’ that Captain Lemay had warned her about.

“Good to meet you,” Neidermyer continued letting go of her hand, he turned to introduce two young women with expensive hair-do’s and wearing even more expensive dresses. “These are our two name tag hostesses, Mandy Pepperidge and Babs Jansen.”

Faith took an almost instant dislike to the two young women, she’d heard of this type of girl from her friends who could actually (unlike Faith) remember their high school years; these girls looked just so full of ‘pep’. Faith knew with a certainty that couldn’t be denied that if she could remember high school she’d probably have hated their sort with a-vengeance.

“Hi there Faith,” the two young women chorused; Faith fought to keep her face straight, not only did these girls look full of ‘pep’ they also sounded like bit part actors from ‘Gone with the Wind’, Mandy stuck a label on Faith’s jacket, it had her name written on it in black marker pen.

“Why don’t we go inside so you can meet some of the guys,” Neidermyer placed his hand on Faith’s shoulder and started to steer her towards the ‘party’ (Faith resisted the urge to rip his arm off and feed it to him) as they walked away from the women at the door, Faith’s super-ears picked up Mandy and Babs talking about her.

“White trash,” Mandy commented.

“And that outfit,” Babs added giggling into her hand.

“…if you don’t mind me saying, Faith, I can call you Faith?” Neidermyer asked.

“Yeah, fine,” Faith’d rather he didn’t but she’d let it go for now.

“You’re a little older, no offence,” Neidermyer added quickly, “than the usual run of students…”

“Yeah,” Faith agreed as she took in the no doubt expensive flower arrangements, set out on good quality furniture, to be honest this looked more like an expensive hotel than a frat house. “I’ve been doin’ stuff an’ this is the first time I’ve had a chance to take some time out an’ go to college.”

“Outstanding,” Neidermyer congratulated her insincerely, “it’s so refreshing to see someone from, shall we say, the blue collar end of society trying to better themselves.”

This guy was soooo dead, Faith told herself as she smiled up into Neidermyer's eyes.

“Gee,” Faith’s fists clenched into tight balls as she imagined Neidermyer lying bleeding in a ditch somewhere in Iraq, “that’s so nice of ya to say.”

“However,” Neidermyer’s tone changed slightly, “I’m afraid that I have to warn you that Omega house doesn’t take women this is, after all, a fraternity.”

“Oh, don’t you worry,” Faith smiled as she counted the days and hours to the first time she took the army platoon of the JROTC out on field training, “I ain’t looking ta join, I was just advised to look around an’ join in, y’know, meet people,” Faith looked up at Neidermyer and fluttered her eyelashes, oh, this was going to be so much fun!

“Well, yes,” Neidermyer coughed to cover his surprise, this woman was coming on to him; she might be a working class prole but she was very attractive and might be worth cultivating. “Now, there’s a lot of really interesting people here tonight,” Neidermyer led Faith into a large room where white jacketed waiters moved between expensively dressed young people, “so don’t feel you have to meet them all at once.” Neidermyer laughed as he exchanged a wave of greeting with the guy playing the piano.

If it hadn’t been for Faith’s boundless self confidence in her own hotness, plus the knowledge that she could hospitalise everyone in the room…and she did mean _everyone_ ; she might have felt a little out of place.

“I just want you to enjoy yourself, Faith,” Neidermyer snagged a glass of punch from off the tray of a passing waiter and passed it to Faith, “now I’ve got to go back to my duties, but I’ll be back soon,” Neidermyer flashed Faith a smile that exposed a mouth full of expensively straightened teeth, “don’t go away now.”

Watching Neidermyer head back towards the front door, Faith sipped her punch and shivered with disgust, it was non-alcoholic. Add this to fact that Neidermyer soooo wanted to get in her pants, Faith decided that she wasn’t going to stay long. However she’d look around for awhile, see what she could find out. Glass in hand, she drifted around the room her ears open for any piece of information that might come in useful later.

“…Omega has more activities than most of the other fraternities and is far superior…”

Faith drifted over to where a guy with perfect hair and a loud sports jacket was holding court to a group of fresh faced eager young men. The girl Mandy suddenly appeared from out of the crowd, the guy in the loud jacket stood up and kissed her on the cheek. Uh-huh, thought Faith, Mandy is loud-jacket-man’s girlfriend, now who is loud-jacket-man? Faith moved a little closer.

“…now I’m not going to say Omega’s the best house on campus, but a lot of outstanding guys figure that they’ll pledge Omega or they won’t pledge at all…”

Loud-jacket-man (Faith screwed up her eyes and looked at the badge on his lapel, it said ‘Greg’) was holding forth to a particularly earnest looking guy while Mandy hung on to his every word like they were coming straight from god.

“We do have more than our share of campus leaders,” boasted Greg, “something that never looks bad on your permanent record.”

“Well, sure,” replied the guy ‘Greg’ had been giving his sales pitch to, “everybody says Omega’s the best, but I hate to seem…”

The guy’s voice petered out as he sensed Faith come up behind him; he turned to glare down at Faith with the beginnings of a sneer on his lips. Faith on the other hand smiled happily (although her smile never quite made the long journey to her eyes) up at the young man; another asshole in the making she told herself.

“…you know, pushy,” Faith wasn’t sure if the guy was talking to her or Greg.

“Let the unacceptable candidates worry about that, because after tonight they’re…” Greg noticed Faith for the first time, he turned to look at her, “…you are…?”

Faith turned so Greg could see her name badge.

“Faith!” Greg smiled, “I’m Greg Marmalard, president of Omega House,” Greg gestured to Mandy, “and I’d like you to meet my friends Mandy Pepperidge…”

“We’ve met,” Faith replied quietly but Greg didn’t seem to hear her, “and Chip Diller.”

“Hi,” Diller reluctantly shook Faith’s hand.

With an expertise that would have done a group of insurgents breaking contact proud, Faith found herself standing alone with a half full glass of vile fruit punch in her hand. Looking around, she decided it was time to leave, this wasn’t the place for her, it was time to move on. Walking towards the exit, she paused for a moment, if she went out the way she’d came in (never tactically sound) she’d have to run the gauntlet of Neidermyer and at least one blonde bimbo. Scanning the room she saw a waiter leave the main room by a door in the corner. Walking through the press of people, Faith found herself in a short corridor. Going through the door at the far end she found a kitchen full of busy waiters and a door to the outside world.

0=0=0=0

**Delta House.**

Delta House was the second fraternity house that the Dean’s note had suggested she check out; she was actually wondering why the Dean wanted her to check out these two particular houses and not a couple of the sorority houses. Standing in front of Delta House, Faith immediately noticed the differences between the two houses. Instead of the neatly tended lawns and flower beds of Omega house, Faith saw an area of mud cut up by tire tracks that led to the two junked cars that decorated Delta’s ‘lawn’. The house looked like something out of the Adams family and it obviously hadn’t been painted in years.

Walking slowly towards the house Faith saw the piles of empty beer barrels and crates of bottles piled up on the veranda. Her super-senses sounded a warning and she was able to stop just in time to avoid the female shop dummy that fell from an upstairs window and landed in the mud in front of her. Walking round the dummy, she came up behind a short fat guy who was holding a glass of beer in one hand while he peed on the remains of a shrub at the foot of the steps leading up to the front door.

“Hi,” Faith spoke softly not wishing to spook the guy, “is this Delta House?”

The peeing guy was just about to turn and pee on Faith shoes when Faith stopped him with a hand on his shoulder.

“You pee on my shoes,” Faith told him with quiet menace, “and it’ll be the last thing you ever do in ya life, which will last for precisely ten seconds of unimaginable pain.”

The guy stopped peeing and put himself away before gesturing with his beer glass for Faith to follow him. Walking up the steps toward the front door, Faith could hear the music coming from inside the house and the sound of laughter and shouting; now this sounded like what she called a party. Walking into Delta House, Faith noticed two things straight off; first she noticed the bottle of beer flying through the air towards her head. Calmly snatching the missile out of the air with her right hand, Faith also noted that it was almost full and took a swig.

“Yeah,” the guy who’d walked in with her swayed slightly as he waved his beer glass around spilling beer onto the floor as he did so, “have a beer it’s free.”

The second thing she noticed was the slight case of ambush cramps she’d got as soon as she’d walked through the door. This wasn’t like the stabbing pain she’d got in Iraq just before an ambush was sprung on her and her unit. No, this was like a dull ache like maybe she’d eaten something that didn’t sit well on her stomach. Not seeing anything immediately dangerous, she took another swig from her beer and moved further into the house. The place was a wreck; she’d seen cleaner and tidier hovels in Iraq. However, the big room that made up half the ground floor was full of young people having fun. They danced to the loud music being played by the DJ at one end of the room and drank beer supplied from a bar at the other end.

“Cool,” Faith commented to herself as a slight grin crossed her face; turning she almost walked into a short blonde girl.

“Sorry!” giggled the girl as she looked up into Faith’s face, “OH! Hey! Hi Ma…sorry Faith! What-cha-doin’ here?”

“Hi, Ashley,” Faith smiled down at the slightly drunk girl, “just checking the place out, y’know?”

“Yeah, sure, like…” Ashley stumbled and fell against Faith who caught her and put her back on her feet, “thanks,” Ashley giggled again, “like you’re checking out the place because…?”

“No reason,” Faith shrugged, “hey how much have ya had to drink?”

“Ooooh,” Ashley’s face fell a little as she began to think that Faith was here to spoil her fun, “not much, I-I’m over eighteen y’know.”

“Hey kid,” Faith replied, “I’m not here to rain on ya parade just be careful, right?” Ashley nodded, “Are you here with anyone?”

“Liza’s ‘round somewhere,” Ashley waved her bottle around.

“Okay,” Faith called over the sound of the music, “why don’t ya go find her and stay close, huh?”

There was something off about Delta house and Faith couldn’t work out what it was. Now she’d joined ASID (Army Special Investigation Division) she had a better idea of what was really going on in the world. ASID and its sister unit the 613th Independent Ranger Battalion were tasked with hunting down and killing the monsters that roamed the world. There really were things like zombies, and hellhounds and the things that Faith had been calling ‘bloodsuckers’ were actually vampires and yes you could kill them by sticking a piece of wood through their hearts.

It hadn’t come as much of a surprise to Faith, she’d been meeting and dealing with these things for some time, she just wondered why it was she seemed to be able to sense them. Just like she was sensing something now. There was something about Delta house that was making her brain itch. Putting down her beer bottle, she walked amongst the dancing students ignoring the folk singer who was singing to a group of young women on the stairs. Catching a glimpse of Ashley and Liza, Faith moved quickly towards them.

“Oh, hi Miss Lehane,” Liza smiled, she didn’t seem at all drunk, “enjoying the party?”

“Yeah great,” Faith didn’t sound as if she meant it; seeing Ashley slumped against the wall, Faith went over and checked her out, turning to Liza she asked, “just how much has she had to drink?”

“Not much,” Liza frowned, “I think someone spiked the punch.”

“Then why aren’t you drunk?” Faith lifted Ashley to her feet.

“I only drink from bottles that I’ve opened myself or seen opened,” Liza explained, “and I don’t drink a lot.”

“Sensible girl,” Faith placed her arm under Ashley’s and around her waist, “help be get her outta here.”

“Yeah, okay,” Liza helped Faith with her friend towards the front door.

“Hey!” came a voice from behind them as Faith steered the two teenagers towards the door; it was peeing guy again. “You’re not leaving so soon.”

It took a moment for Faith to realise it hadn’t been a question, it’d been an order which she almost felt compelled to obey. Blinking her eyes and shaking her head to clear it of the strange buzzing sound in her head, Faith renewed her grip on Ashley.

“Hey look,” Faith smiled, “the kid’s outta it, I better get her home, y’know?”

Peeing guy looked from one girl to the other and then at the woman, something was telling him it’d be a bad idea to try and stop the ‘sensible adult’, she was dangerous and it was too early in the year to cause the trouble it would make to try and stop her.

“Okay,” he replied lightly, “pity though, the party’s just getting started.”

“Yeah,” Faith started to manoeuvre the two girls towards the door, “maybe next time, huh?”

“Yeah,” peeing man grinned, “next time.”

Once outside Liza stopped for a moment and looked over Ashley’s head at Faith.

“That was weird,” Liza frowned, “did you feel that?”

“Like a buzzing in your ears and a feeling you wanted to stay?”

“Yeah that’s it,” Lisa nodded as she helped Faith drag Ashley towards their dorm.

“Look,” Faith spoke softly, “I think that more than the punch was spiked, y’know?”

“Yeah,” Liza agreed.

“Maybe you an’ Ashley should stay away from Delta House,” Faith glanced back at the house and swore she could see someone watching them from an upstairs window.

0=0=0=0

“Pity,” Robert Hoover, the president of Delta house said as he watched the three women walk away from the house, “they were three good prospects.”

“Don’t worry,” Eric ‘Otter’ Stratton, Rush Chairman of Delta house replied affably as he looked in his mirror and adjusted his tie, “there’s plenty more fish in the sea.” Satisfied with his appearance he turned away from the mirror and smiled at Robert, “I have a feeling that this year is going to be our best year ever.”

“Y’think?” Robert shrugged; both young men had been at Delta House for many, many years and yet no one ever noticed that the core group of Delta’s never changed, at least not in the last eighty years or so.

“Yeah I do,” Otter threw his arms wide to encompass the entire campus, “have you seen how many girls there are this year?”

“Yeah,” Robert agreed, every year there did seem to be more and more girls on campus, which meant more and more ‘prospects’.

“Well don’t look so down,” Otter started to head for the door.

“You going out hunting?” Robert followed his friend to the door.

“I don’t see why not,” Otter grinned down at his friend, “it’s a fine night so there’s bound to be freshman girl’s wandering around lost just waiting for a white knight to show them the way home.”

“Yeah, well, you be careful,” Robert warned his friend, “times change I’ve heard there’s going to be self-defence classes for the female students this year.”

“You,” Otter turned to his buddy and patted him on the cheek, “worry too much, I’ll be careful!”

“Mind you are,” Robert called as Otter turned into his demonic form and flew out of an open window.

0=0=0=0


	4. Chapter 4

4.

**Faber College Campus.**

“She’s not normally like this,” Liza said as she helped Faith carry Ashley back to their dorm.

“Like what?” Faith scanned the darkness for threats, her ambush cramps had returned.

“Like drunk,” Liza explained.

“Hey look,” Faith watched one particularly dark shadow as she spoke, “you’re teenagers that’s what ya do…which dorm do you live in?”

“Blackman Hall,” Liza replied.

“That’s…” Faith consulted the map in her head, “…that’s over there,” she pointed down an ill lit path; she didn’t like the look of it and the shadow she’d seen earlier appeared to have moved. “Erm I better see ya…” Faith’s voice trailed away to nothing as she disentangled herself from Ashley, “…here look after Ashley.”

Turning to face the darkness under the trees that lined the path, Faith was just in time to receive the charge of the figure that came out of the darkness like an express train. Her super-powers and hours spent practising unarmed combat enabled her to catch hold of her assailant and throw him to the ground. Faith’s attacker jumped back to his feet and snarled bearing its long, sharp fangs at her.

“Oh no,” Faith groaned, she really couldn’t be bothered with this sort of thing tonight, “not one of you assholes?”

The vampire sprang at Faith who caught the creature of the night under the chin with her forearm neatly preventing him from sinking its teeth into her neck. Pushing the vampire away from herself, she crouched down waiting for the bloodsucker to attack again. Not having to wait long, she met the vampire with a flurry of well aimed kicks and punches that forced the creature to halt its charge. The creature of the night’s hesitation proved fatal as it allowed Faith to wrap her arms around its neck. Flexing her super-powered muscles, she felt more than heard the vamp’s neck break. Stepping away from the dead vamp quickly, Faith avoided getting too much vamp-ash on her clothes.

“Where’d he go?” Liza cried as she ran over to Faith.

“He musta run off,” Faith explained as she dusted down her clothes.

“You mean you chased him off,” Liza looked into Faith’s eyes with admiration, “you’re so cool Faith.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Faith sighed now was not the time for hero worship, “lets get Ashley and you home, huh?”

Lifting the semi-conscious girl to her feet, Faith aimed for Blackman Hall and continued their interrupted journey.

“Might be an idea to have yourselves checked out at the medical centre tomorrow,” Faith suggested.

“Why?” Lisa wanted to know.

“Just in case, y’know,” Faith replied non-committally.

“But I didn’t get drugged…” Liza began only to be interrupted by Faith.

“But Ashley did so you might as well get checked out when you take her, okay?” The words came out of Faith’s mouth sounding a little more like an order than she’d intended.

“Yes ma’am,” Liza replied quietly.

Stopping outside Blackman Hall, Faith left Ashley in Liza’s care telling her to go straight to their room and go to bed. Watching the girls safely into there block, Faith sighed again and shook her head.

“Kids,” Faith groaned to herself, “What am I sayin’?” she asked herself, “Must be gettin’ old.”

Sadly and with feelings of impending dotage overtaking her, Faith walked slowly back to her own block without further incident. If there were vampires on campus she’d have to hunt them down and kill them. In the mean time, she’d better report in to Fort Drum and tell them what was going on.

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s room, Potter Hall.**

Picking up her cellphone, Faith dialled a number that she kept memorised. After only a couple of rings she found herself talking to the duty agent at ASID headquarters. Quickly reporting what had happened she told the agent on duty that she’d handle it and report back to them tomorrow night whether she found anything or not. At the moment she didn’t know if it’d been a random attack by a lone vamp or something more serious. 

Signing off, Faith called another number, her face fell a little when she only got through to the voice mail, leaving a message, Faith hung up. Slightly disappointed at not being able to get through she shrugged, checked the time and decided to take a shower and then read for a little before turning in for the night. Tomorrow morning she’d be going to her first lecture on forensic science.

0=0=0=0

**Theta House,**

“Some bastard killed Kenny!” Pete announced as he burst into the un-living room on the ground floor of the dilapidated frat house.

“WHAT!?” screeched Toyah (her real name was Cissy, but she’d changed it to ‘Toyah’ back in the late 80’s), “What do you mean someone killed Kenny?”

“Just that,” Pete started to explain, “we were out hunting…”

“You were what?” a note of dangerous menace entered Toyah’s voice as she stood up from her seat in front of the dead fire.

“Hunting?” Pete replied as he noticed the really, really pissed look on Toyah’s face.

“You went out HUNTING!?” Toyah caught Pete around the throat with her hand and lifted him off his feet, “How many times do I have to tell you assholes, WE DON’T HUNT!”

“Like sorry, Toy,” Pete croaked as he tried to loosen the female vamps grip on his throat, “but we were hungry.”

“Look!” Toyah dropped Pete back onto his feet, “Thinking with your fangs will get you dusted, understand?” Walking back to her chair Toyah shook her head in disgust, she was surrounded by idiots. “Okay,” Toyah sat down and studied Pete coldly, “how did he die?”

“He went after these three chicks and one of them kicked his ass,” Pete explained as he rubbed his neck.

“He got dusted by a chick?” Toyah asked her eyes wide with alarm.

“Erm, yeah,” Pete replied uncertainly.

“Describe her and how it went down,” Toyah ordered and listen to Pete as he described what had happened. “Oh no,” Toyah groaned and buried her face in her hands, “you know what this means?”

“Erm,” Pete frowned, he was the group’s drummer and wasn’t really that bright, “like no?”

“This means,” Toyah held onto her temper with both hands, losing it now wouldn’t help, “that there’s a slayer in town…”

“A what?” Pete had never heard of ‘a slayer’ before, “Hey don’t you mean…”

“No I am not referring to the heavy metal band,” Toyah snapped before Pete could state the obvious. “Look,” Toyah pointed a delicate finger right between Pete’s eyes, he gulped loudly, “thanks to you and Kenny we’re in big trouble, find the others they need to be warned, and bring them here,” Toyah sighed, “we also need to find a new lead guitarist!”

They had a gig coming up soon and they’d have to cancel if they’d not got a new lead guitar.

0=0=0=0

**JROTC, the next day.**

“Gunney Leeka,” Faith called from the doorway to the Marine’s office.

“Chief?” Leeka looked up from the file he was reading, “Come in, anything I can help you with?”

“Thanks,” Faith walked into the little office and sat down in the chair facing Leeka’s desk.

“Coffee,” Leeka asked when Faith didn’t immediately respond to his question.

Watching the Marine limp over to the coffee percolator, Faith felt like a fraud; Leeka was a good ten years older than she was and yet she outranked him. 

“Iraq or Afghanistan?” Faith asked as she took the cup of scolding hot coffee off the Gunnery Sergeant.

“Afghanistan, roadside IED,” Leeka explained as he sat down again, “I was flat on my back for six weeks, then when I was up and around again, the Corps sent me here,” Leeka sipped his coffee watching Faith over the rim of his cup. “Captain tells me you went ashore with the First of the Twelfth on Nunca-Aterriza, in my book that makes you an honorary Marine,” Leeka’s eyes flicked over Faith combat badges and the Ranger tab on her shoulder, “but I’m sure you’re not here to swap war stories, Chief…”

“Yeah,” Faith smiled, “maybe later, huh?”

“Be my pleasure to buy you a beer and shoot the breeze,” Leeka replied and then waited for Faith to get whatever it was off her chest.

“What do you know about Delta house?” Faith asked after sipping her coffee, she smiled it had been a while since she’d tasted Marine coffee.

“Ah!” Leeka sat back in his chair and folded his hands across his stomach, “How long have you got?”

“Just give me the highlights, Gunny,” Faith groaned inwardly.

“Delta House,” Leeka paused as he ordered his thoughts, “can I ask why you want to know?”

“Look,” Faith began earnestly, “the Dean suggested that I check the place out, so I did an’ I found a couple of your Midshipmen at the party the frat-boys were throwing, one of ‘em looked as if she’d been drugged.”

“That’s a new one,” Leeka shook his head, “I can’t remember Delta trying to drug any of their female ‘guests’ before…”

“You mean…” Faith began but Leeka held up his hand for her to stop.

“Look,” Leeka sighed, “if there’s a prank on campus Delta’s behind it. The Dean hates them and has been trying to throw them off campus since…well, I don’t know when. To be honest I always thought they lightened the place up, but…” Leeka prevented Faith’s next outburst by saying, “…but, if they’ve started to try and drug female students, that’s different. Who did they try it on if I can ask?”

“Ashley Simmons,” Faith replied, “she was there with her friend Liza Taylor who didn’t appear to have been drugged.”

“You sure this wasn’t self inflicted?” Leeka wanted to know.

“Sure as I can be,” Faith shrugged, “look they seem like a couple of nice kids. Like I say, Liza was fine an’ she told me that Ashley didn’t normally get like that.”

“Hmmm,” Leeka sat forward again and watched Faith from under his eyebrows, “sounds like you know them better than I do. To me they’re just two new Middies, I’ve not had a chance to talk to them much.”

“Hey, look,” Faith started to explain, “I don’t want to get them in any trouble…”

“You’re not,” Leeka smiled, “look I’ll tell everyone to steer clear of Delta House, actually…” Leeka eyed Faith for a moment, “…why don’t you have a word with all the female cadets. A warning might come better from the senior female instructor.”

“Say what? Me…Senior Instructor?” Faith gasped as Leeka smiled at her.

“Yep, Chief you’re it!” Chuckled the Gunney.

“Crap!” Faith hadn’t realised she was the most senior military female on campus, “yeah, okay, I’ll do that if you can get them all together.”

“Sure thing I’ll fix that, Chief,” Leeka replied as he made a note, “tomorrow evening okay for you?”

“Sure fine,” Faith admitted; she’d been drugged and raped a year or so back, if it could happen to her then it could happen to anyone.

“Anything else I can help you with?” Leeka asked.

“Just one thing,” Faith started to wonder if she was up to all her new duties, this was harder than she’d ever imagined; to be honest she’d rather be fighting alien hunters again. “What can you tell me about Cadet Lieutenant Neidermyer?”

“You’ve read his file?” Leeka asked.

“That’s why I’m askin’,” Faith replied, “he seems pretty average, in fact from what I could see there were a couple of cadets who deserved the promotion more than Neidermyer.”

“You know who his Grandfather is?” Leeka raised an eyebrow knowingly.

“Yeah,” Faith nodded her head slowly, “I see, but surely Captain Lemay would have to sign off on any promotion. He’s Marines, Neidermyer Senior couldn’t…”

“The Captain wasn’t here then,” Leeka pointed out, “Captain Clark signed off on the promotion before he took up his new posting in Hawaii.”

“Okay, I see,” Faith signed resignedly.

“If you’re thinking of doing what I think you’re going to do…”

“I think you might be right, Gunney,” Faith smiled.

“Well,” Leeka glanced up at the open door, “I hope you’ve got someone to back your play.”

“General Brittles, you heard of him?” Faith asked.

“Name doesn’t spring to mind, Army of course?”

“Yeah,” Faith nodded, “he’s my boss so I’m not worried about any retired general too much.”

“Okay,” Leeka shrugged, “I’ll give you all the support I can…”

“Thanks.”

“…and in the spirit of our new found co-operation,” Leeka rested his elbows on his desk and leant towards Faith, “you’ve got two new cadets, Chip Diller and Kent Dorfman. Diller is an Omega pledge and Dorfman’s pledged for Delta, not a good mix.”

“Great,” Faith sighed, “just what I need. Okay,” Faith stood up, “thanks for all the help, I’ll buy you that beer an’ we can swap stories after training tonight if you like.”

“Nothing better to do, Chief,” Leeka stood up and shook Faith hand, “meet you back here at twenty-hundred?”

“It’s a date,” Faith called as she turned towards the door, “I’ll probably need it after this afternoon.”

“That’s right,” Leeka laughed, “you’re meeting your platoon, good luck with that.”

“Thanks Gunney, I think I’m going to need it.”

0=0=0=0

**A hill overlooking Faber College Sports Field.**

Coming to a halt, Eric ‘Otter’ Stratton and Donald ‘Boon’ Schoenstein looked out over the sports field and the Army platoon of the JROTC who were lined up doing callisthenics. They both carried golf bags, which they took from their shoulders and laid down on the grass.

“Vampires!” Otter exclaimed to his friend for about the tenth time, “I had those three beauties in my sights and then this vampire burst outta the bushes and ruined everything.”

“Did it kill them or turn them?” Boon wanted to know as he pulled a club from his bag.

“No,” Otter shook his head as he got out his own club, “I couldn’t see too well but it looked like they fought him off.”

“I thought we had an agreement,” Boon teed up a ball, “no vampires on campus.”

“So did I,” Otter watched as a figure on a horse trotted across the field below them and towards the army cadets. “Hey,” he attracted Boon’s attention to what was going on, “this looks interesting.”

0=0=0=0

“Company halt!” Chip Diller called before bringing the other cadets back to attention; although he was new to the JROTC he’d been put in charge of the cadet’s PT by Neidermyer because he’d been pledged to Omega house.

Trotting across the field on the back of a large, white horse came Doug Neidermyer dressed in his best uniform and with an old, chromed, ‘pot’ helmet on his head. Slowing his horse to a walk, Neidermyer rode around the platoon occasionally shouting at a cadet to ‘dress that line’ or ‘suck in that gut’. He paused in front of the platoon to exchange salutes with Diller before riding over to the left flank and bringing his horse to a halt.

“Mister,” Neidermyer pointed to a cadet in the rear rank, “hold my mount.”

Once the cadet had a firm hold on the horse’s reins, Neidermyer dismounted and walked over to where Dorfman stood in the middle of the rear rank.

“Fat disgusting slob,” Neidermyer stood in front of Dorfman at parade rest, “you’re a GODDAMNED DISGRACE!”

Up on the hill Otter and Boon watched what was happening below them with mild interest.

“Vicious mother, isn’t he?” Otter observed.

“Yeah,” Boon agreed, “he can’t do that to our pledges, only we can do that to our pledges!”

“Redo those buttons!” back down on the sports field Neidermyer continued hazing Dorfman, “Shine that belt buckle,” Neidermyer walked slowly around Dorfman until he was standing behind him. “Straighten that cap,” he knocked Dorfman’s cap from his head making the young man bend to pick it up and expose the shirt that was sticking out from the back of his pants, “And goddamn-it, tuck in that shirt!” Neidermyer struck Dorfman across his rear with his riding crop. “Attention!” Neidermyer screamed into Dorfman’s ear, “Eyes Front!”

Dorfman tried to obey and straightened up a little, he looked like a frightened rabbit as he stared into Neidermyer’s eyes. Noticing something on Dorfman’s lapel, Neidermyer smiled evilly.

“What’s that on your chest, Mister?” he demanded.

“It’s a pledge pin sir,” Dorfman replied fearfully.

“A pledge pin!?” Neidermyer repeated getting into Dorfman’s face again, “ON YOUR UNIFORM!?” Calming down a little Neidermyer’s voice dropped to a more conversational level, “Just tell me, mister, what fraternity would pledge a ‘man’ like you?”

“It’s a Delta pin, sir,” Dorfman replied reluctantly.

“You’ll report to the stables tonight and every night at twenty-thirty hours,” Neidermyer informed Dorfman with increasing anger, “AND WITHOUT THAT PLEDGE PIN!” He yelled into Dorfman’s face, “DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

Terrified into silence Dorfman just nodded his head. Neidermyer went back to his horse and mounted while up on the hill Otter lined up a ball aiming to hit Neidermyer’s horse and make it bolt. Boon, however had seen something and held out his hand signalling Otter to relax.

“Hold on,” he told his fellow demon, as he pointed to the figure approaching the platoon from across the football field, “I think something’s about to happen.”

“You’re all worthless and weak!” Neidermyer was telling the platoon from the back of his horse, “NOW DROP AND GIVE ME TWENTY!”

“AS YOU WERE!” Faith yelled as she came to attention in front of the platoon; the cadets looked from her to Neidermyer not sure who they should obey, Faith soon put them straight. “YOU MISTER!” Faith turned towards Neidermyer, “Who the hell do you think you are, Patton?” Faith moved menacingly slowly towards where Neidermyer sat on his increasingly nervous horse. “Get off that god-damned horse and stand to attention when I speak to ya!”

Faith pointed at the ground in front of her; not sure what to do or say, Neidermyer reluctantly dismounted and came to stand in front of her. Satisfied that she had everyone’s attention, Faith turned towards the platoon. Running her eyes over the twenty or so cadets she noted they were all guys, she knew from reading the platoon records there should be at least eight female cadets, she wondered where they were and what they were doing.

“Alright,” Faith started to pace up and down the front rank of cadets, “listen up and listen good. My name is Chief Warrant Officer Lehane; you will address me as Ma’am. I am now in command of this sorry excuse for a platoon so when I say jump you jump, understand?”

“Yes Ma’am,” came the ragged reply.

“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”

“MA’AM, YES MA’AM!” cried the platoon; at least they were quick learners.

“You!” Faith was suddenly standing in front of Neidermyer again; he’d not actually noticed her move until it was too late, “See that hut?” Faith pointed to a hut about half a mile away on the edge of the sports field, “Run ‘round it.”

“B-but…” Neidermyer stammered while gesturing at his neat uniform.

“NOW!” Faith yelled in his face; let’s see how he likes having someone in his face.

After watching Neidermyer run off towards the hut, Faith turned back to the rest of the platoon.

“Now,” she said in a much more friendly tone, “can anyone tell me why you’re wearing your class B’s instead of your BDU’s?” her question was met by silence, “Anyone?” Faith raised an eyebrow as she looked at all the puzzled faces in front of her, “Ya know I expect Neidermyer would appreciate some company right about now…”

Up on the hill, Otter and Boon stared down at the scene below, they’d heard everything.

“I love that woman,” Otter sighed.

“You love all women,” Boon observed.

“Yeah,” Otter agreed, “but I _really_ love that woman!”

0=0=0=0


	5. Chapter 5

5.

**Morey’s, a bar near Faber College.**

“Thanks, Gunney,” Faith accepted the glass of beer from Gunney Leeka’s hand as he sat down in the seat opposite her.

“Joe,” Leeka corrected as he made himself comfortable.

“Faith,” sipping her cold beer, Faith glanced around the bar; the walls were hung with all kinds of Faber sporting memorabilia, none of it looked newer that about twenty years ago. “What is this place?”

“Morey’s?” Joe Leeka sipped his own beer and sighed as he relaxed, “Used to be the place to go for the Faber College sports crowd, now…” Joe gestured to all the empty tables.

“Now not so much, huh?” Faith eyed the place; it wasn’t so bad if all you wanted was a quiet drink.

Sitting quietly for a moment, Faith tried to work out the best way of asking what she wanted to ask, Joe sat patiently waiting for her to say something, eventually after a minute or two Faith spoke.

“What do I do, Joe?” Faith put down her glass and stared into its contents.

“About what?” Joe asked, but he had a pretty good idea what was worrying Faith.

“Y’know I found my female cadets sitting in a classroom while all the male cadets where in formation,” Faith began, “When I asked them what the hell they were doing, I was told they always sat there as Neidermyer didn’t ‘approve’ of women in the army!”

“Ha!” Joe laughed, “He’s got a nasty shock coming.”

“You better believe it,” Faith said in a menacing whisper, “y’know he formed some sorta ‘special forces’ squad?” Joe shook his head in the negative, “They get all the best equipment and don’t have to join the others for formations or anything. I tell ya man it’s gonna stop, how’s he been able to get away with this crap?”

“I don’t know Faith,” Joe admitted, “I was here last semester and I admit I saw some of this crap go down but I had my own worries.”

“Hey, I’m not blaming ya man…” 

“No,” Joe shook his head, “I shoulda said something, but…”

“But?” Faith prompted.

“It’s Neidermyer,” Joe replied vaguely.

“What about him?” Faith wanted to know, “Apart from him being a class ‘A’ asshole.”

“Everything just comes back to Neidermyer,” Joe tried to explain, “He just always gets his way and its something more than grand-daddy being an ex-general.”

“Go on,” Faith lifted her glass to her lips and sipped.

“Look, General Neidermyer is an asshole, it seems to run in the family,” Joe sighed heavily, “No one I’ve met likes him, everyone knows he was more dangerous to his own men than the enemy but…”

“But somehow he still gets to be a general,” Faith finished Joe’s thought for him, “What happened to our Neidermyer’s father, I hear loads about the grandfather but not the dad.”

“Only in the military for a few years, left as a Lieutenant, went into business,” Joe shook his head in disgust, “made a fortune.”

“Uh-huh,” Faith nodded her head slowly, she could see a pattern forming, “So let me get this straight; we have grand-daddy who was a general for no good reason that anyone can see. Daddy who spends a few years as an L-t then leaves and makes a splash in the business word…”

“And ‘Doug’,” Joe completed the list, “who looks as if he’s gonna follow in Grand-daddies footsteps, so what you gonna do?”

“Neidermyer junior?” Faith laughed, “I’m gonna make his life a misery. The platoon?” Faith groaned quietly, “Well, I’ll start by getting everyone in formation at the same place and at the same time…”

“General Neidermyer?” Joe asked, “Coz sure as hell Doug’s gonna run crying to his grand-daddy.”

“I know some people,” Faith said darkly, in fact there were some pretty important people around who owed her…big time.

“Hope you do,” Joe finished his beer and gestured with his empty glass at Faith’s, “another?”

“I’ll get these,” Faith got up and wandered over to the bar all the while thinking about what hold the Neidermyer’s had to get things all their own way.

0=0=0=0

**Delta House.**

“You weren’t serious about seducing that army chick,” Boon asked, “were you?”

“No,” Otter shook his head as he checked himself out in the mirror; once again he had a hot date with some unsuspecting female freshman. “I was just a little over powered by her beauty and strength.”

“Yeah,” Boon nodded, “I could see that.”

“Hey, how are you getting on with that girlfriend of yours,” Otter wanted to know.

“Katy?” Boon idly picked up a girlie magazine and started to flick through its well thumbed pages.

“That’s her,” Otter turned to look at his friend, “how do I look.”

“Stunning,” Boon hardly glanced at his fellow demon.

“You think so?” Otter looked down at himself slightly disappointed, “I was going for ‘ruggedly handsome’,” Otter shrugged, “so, Katy?”

“I’m driving her insane with my ‘immature behaviour’,” Boon smiled.

“But she keeps coming back for more?” Otter patted some after shave onto his cheeks.

“Like I’ve got her on a rubber band,” Boon gloated.

“So,” Otter started to change the subject, “what’s next on the list of pranks for this year?”

“Horse in the Dean’s office,” Boon threw the magazine onto Otter’s bed.

“Hey that’s always fun,” Otter smiled, “must be years since we last did that one.”

“I checked,” Boon stood up and walked over to the window, “we’ve not done it since some time in the sixties.”

“Wow!” Otter shook his head, “Seems like only yesterday,” he sighed remembering good times, “Who’s lined up for it?”

“Kent Dorfman,” Boon replied as he watched a couple of Omega’s walk by, “Neidermyer picked on him…”

“Yeah I was there, remember?” Otter pointed out.

“Whatever,” Boon shrugged, “won’t be too hard for Bluto and D-Day to get him to do the business.”

“And we initiate him, right?” Otter finally satisfied with his appearance started to head for the door.

“If all goes to plan,” Boon followed he friend out the door.

“Oh he’ll go through with it,” Otter laughed, “given a little helping nudge his type always does.”

0=0=0=0

**Omega House.**

“BITCH!” Neidermyer paced up and down the length of Greg’s room.

“Calm down, Doug,” Greg looked over at his frat brother from where he sat at his desk; he’d been writing an essay, not that he had to write much. By the time his tutor read it, it would be re-written so he’d get an ‘A’ grade, he just had to show that he knew roughly what he was talking about and his Dark Lord and Master would deal with everything else.

“I can’t!” Neidermyer exclaimed, “A woman!” he pointed a trembling finger at Greg, “A woman telling _me_ what to do, f’christ’s sake!”

“Why don’t you just get your grandfather to have her removed?” Greg gave up on his essay, after all it didn’t matter, his success in life had been assured from the day he’d been initiated into his Dark Lord’s cult.

“Yes!” Doug had calmed down now and had stopped pacing, and smiled maliciously “Have her sent to the South Pole or something.” 

“Okay,” Greg gave a quiet sigh of relief, “now what are we going to do about the Delta’s, the Dean wants them off campus this semester.”

“We don’t have to _do_ anything,” Doug sneered, “they’ll do all the work themselves all we need to do is make sure there’s witnesses willing to testify against them at the inquiry.”

“So you’re suggesting that we just let them get on with it?” Greg wanted clarification.

“Yes,” Doug nodded.

“Cool,” Greg smiled.

“I want Chip, initiated as soon as possible,” Doug announced.

“Why?” Greg sat back in his chair and regarded his frat brother closely.

“Because he hates that Lehane bitch as much as I do,” Doug pointed out, “and I don’t see him refusing to pay the ‘entry fee’.”

“Okay then,” Greg nodded, “I’ll make the arrangements.

0=0=0=0

**Theta House.**

Not a single ray of sunshine ever entered the room where the group of vampires were now sitting, the window’s were too tightly boarded up to allow even one stray ray to enter. At this moment Toyah, the lead vampire was casting a malevolent eye over her fellow vampires.

“Because, Kenny couldn’t wait,” Toyah snarled angrily, “he got himself dusted and now we’re a lead guitarist down and at there’s at least one slayer on campus!”

Having been turned when she was twenty-two which was now over eighty years ago, Toyah (or Cissy as she then was) had led the un-life of your average vampire until about ’03 when suddenly things had changed and there were a lot more slayers around than ever before. As she’d watched her brothers and sisters of the night turn to dust, Toyah had gone into hiding. The time had come to change, adapt or die that’s what it said in all the text books. Not wishing to die she’d adapted.

“Yeah,” Pete the drummer agreed, “nasty viscous looking bitch, she just snapped Kenny’s neck like it was a twig!”

“Right!” Toyah stared into the eyes of her remaining band members, “So this is what we’re going to do.” Toyah relaxed a little, “We keep our heads down, we don’t kill anyone and when we feed we’re careful not to take too much from any one donor, okay?”

“Hey aren’t we going to hunt this bitch down and kill her?” Rick the keyboard player asked.

“What?” Toyah sneered, “And have slayers converge on Faber from all over the country?” Toyah paused to see that the lights were going on behind everyone’s eyes except Rick’s.

“Come on we can take them,” Rick insisted.

“Look,” Toyah walked slowly over to where Rick sat, “I’m gonna have to advertise for a new lead guitarist and I can put in an ad for a keyboard player at the same time, you want me to do that?”

“No,” Rick gulped, “I’m good.”

“Mind you are,” Toyah sauntered slowly back towards her throne-like chair. “Right, I’m advertising for a new lead guitarist tonight. It’ll probably take awhile so I’ll play lead as well as doing vocals for now. When we find someone suitable we’ll turn him or her and go on as we have been, but even more carefully.”

“Do you really think we should do the gig on Saturday?” George the bass guitarist asked, “If there’s like a slayer around…”

“Yeah I know,” Toyah agreed, she liked George he thought with his head not his fangs, “but we need the cash.”

“So what are we gonna eat ‘til Saturday?” Pete wanted to know, the other vampires (even George) nodded their heads in agreement.

“Okay,” Toyah sighed, “we’ll have a snack, Pete call for a pizza.”

“Cool, pizza!” Pete smiled as he left the room heading for the phone in the hall.

“You know what guys?” Toyah asked the other members of ‘Creatures of the Night’, “We need more mid-week gigs, maybe start playing the bars in town.”

0=0=0=0

**Dickinson Hall.**

Becky Woods was the sort of daughter that any parent would be proud to have. Coming from a small mid-western town, she’d worked hard at school and had graduated in the top ten percent of her class. She’d had the same boyfriend since she was twelve and she’d been popular with everyone at her school even though she’d been a cheerleader. Her boyfriend, Max, had graduated at the same time as her and then joined the Marines straight after graduation he would soon be going to Iraq or Afghanistan, Becky wrote to him three or four times a week.

After finishing classes for the day Becky had eaten dinner before heading off to her evening job, she volunteered at an animal shelter three evenings a week. Returning to her room at about nine o’clock that evening, she’d showered, changed into her pyjamas and had sat on her bed to read for a while before switching the light out at about quarter to eleven.

At about midnight, half a dozen black clad figures sneaked into Dickinson Hall and climbed the stairs towards the first floor. Unchallenged by anyone they made their way along the corridor until they were standing outside room 217. Here they stopped while one of their number turned the door handle. The door refused to open it being locked from the inside. Cursing quietly under his breath one of the party knelt down and inserted a lock-pick into the lock. There was a quiet click as the catch released and the door swung silently open.

Bursting noiselessly into the room they moved quickly and efficiently towards Becky’s bed. The girl never had a chance to cry out before a pad was put over her mouth and she passed out. While two figures lifted the girl from her bed and carried her towards the door. The other four members of the snatch squad quickly stripped the room of all of Becky’s belongings placing them into the heavy duty black plastic garbage sacks they’d brought with them.

The raid was over in less than five minutes, as the last sack carrier left the room the leader of the squad stood in the doorway and ran his eyes over the room for anything that might have been missed. Seeing nothing the leader smiled as he pulled the door shut and locked it behind him. Walking swiftly after his squad-mates the leader smiled again under his black ski mask. The girl was payment for Chip being allowed to join the inner circle of the fraternity; Neidermyer hoped that Machida would enjoy their offering.

0=0=0=0

As Becky didn’t have any classes until ten o’clock the following morning, it wasn’t until just after eleven that Liza Taylor, one of Becky’s new friends and classmates went to Becky’s room to see if she was alright. After knocking on the door for five minutes and not getting an answer, Liza persuaded the Hall Warden to open Becky’s room. Finding it stripped bare, Liza insisted that the warden call the Campus Police who arrived ten minutes later.

After giving Becky’s room a cursorily look the campus cop shrugged his shoulders. He told Liza that this sort of thing happened all the time. A student got homesick or found the pressure of college life too much and just up and left. Saying that he’d phone Becky’s parents and inform the local police the cop left leaving Liza fuming in the door way.

0=0=0=0

**JROTC, that night.**

“It’s not like her Ma’am,” Liza tried to explain.

“How so?” Faith asked, she’d just given her, ‘stay away from Delta House’ speech to all the female cadets; Gunney Leeka was warning off the male cadets at that very moment.

“Look,” Liza’s face was screwed up in consternation, “Becky loved college, she was thriving on it, no way would she just up and leave like that.”

“So what do you want me to do?” Faith asked already suspecting vampire involvement in the kidnapping.

“I don’t know, Ma’am,” Liza shrugged her shoulders helplessly, “I know she wasn’t a cadet, but couldn’t you snoop around a little get that campus cops to at least attempt to investigate?”

“Yeah, okay,” Faith rested her hand on the girl’s shoulder for a moment, “I’ll see what I can do.”

Watching as the Midshipman headed on out the door, Faith left her office and went round to see Leeka.

“Hey, Gunney,” Faith called as she walked through his ever open door.

“What can I do for you, Chief,” Leeka gestured to a chair inviting Faith to sit down as he poured two cups of coffee; giving one to Faith he sat down again.

“You hear about the girl disappearing from Dickinson Hall last night?” she wanted to know.

“Yeah,” Leeka sipped his coffee, “sad, happens every now and again. Girl from a small town finds she can’t hack-it and heads for home. Luckily it doesn’t happen with the cadets, at least not while I’ve been here, it’s the military’s mutual support system you see.”

“Yeah?” Faith frowned indicating that Leeka should explain more.

“Well,” Leeka put down his cup and sat back in his chair, “usually before it gets to the point when one of the cadets hightails it for home one of their buddies will have noticed something wrong. They either tell there friends to help out or if it’s real bad come to one of the instructors. Of course the civilian students don’t have that sorta help, ‘specially at the beginning of a semester.”

“Don’t they have student counsellors?” Faith asked.

“Meh,” Leeka shrugged and Faith got the impression he wasn’t impressed, “why do you ask?”

“Liza Taylor was friends with this Becky girl, she’s convinced that there’s something more to this,” Faith explained.

“Oh, Ms Taylor, responsible girl,” Leeka smiled, “sounds like she’s got the makings of a good officer.”

“So any suggestions?” Faith sipped her coffee.

“Well its up to you Chief,” Leeka studied his desk top for a moment, “this Becky girl wasn’t one of ours but it wouldn’t hurt to start a fire under the Campus Police.”

“Hmmm,” Faith shifted in her chair thinking that she might have to start patrolling in the evenings, “I’ll poke around some, see what I can find out, like you say kick those Campus Cops into doing a proper investigation or something.”

“Any time you need help Chief,” Leeka offered.

“Thanks,” Faith was just about to drain her cup and leave when she noticed that Leeka wanted to talk some more.

“I know you have lectures to go to so I did some checking around,” Leeka told her quietly.

“Checking?”

“Omega House,” Leeka continued in a quiet voice.

“What about them?”

“Odd really,” Leeka produced a slim file from his desk drawer and handed it to Faith, “Did you know that just about every student committee, club or action group has at least one Omega on it.”

“No,” Faith wondered as she opened the file and ran her eyes over he lists of names and organisations it contained.

“It’s almost like they control the place,” Leeka shrugged, “funny thing is that apart from Neidermyer and Diller none of them have anything to do with the military…might mean something,” he shrugged, “maybe not, I just thought you’d want to know.”

“Ah!” Faith saw where this was going, “So you’re saying that if I go rooting around, Omega House is bound to find out and this would be bad?”

“Like I say, Delta’s a pain but basically harmless,” Leeka shrugged, “Omega…well, Omega has always made my skin crawl.”

“Okay,” Faith stood up and headed for the door, with the file in her hand, “I’ll watch my back, an’ thanks for this Gunney.”

“Any time Chief.”

0=0=0=0


	6. Chapter 6

6.

**Omega House.**

Whimpering quietly, Becky sat on the floor of the dark room. The chains connecting her wrists to the wall clinked ominously each time she moved. No one had hurt her since whoever had taken her from her room had put her in here. In fact she’d seen no one since she’d been awakened in her room and caught a glimpse of the dark clad figures that’d dragged her from her bed. Whoever had kidnapped her had just left her there in the dark, they’d not fed her or even allowed her any water, her pyjama bottoms were damp where she’d wet herself and she was starting to feel hungry and really thirsty. She had no real idea how long she’d been in the dungeon, but she guessed it must be about twenty-four hours.

Hearing footsteps outside the room Becky cringed against the wall, it sounded like some one was coming for her. Her heart hammered in her chest as a thin wail escaped her lips. The sound of keys rattling in a lock made her moan with terrified anticipation as she imagined all the terrible things that would be done to her. She was a big girl, she knew what happened to girls who were kidnapped and locked in pitch black rooms and chained to walls. Knowing, or at least guessing what would happen to her, Becky started to pray her words coming hoarsely from her dry lips.

Slowly the door opened and light spilled into the room from the corridor outside. Immediately Becky’s eyes started to water and she tried to cover them with her chained hands, the light hurt so much as her tears ran down her checks. Through her blurred eyes she saw two, maybe three figures come into the room and stand over her. Blinking the tears from her eyes she looked up at her captors, they were wearing robes that covered them from head to foot there faces shrouded by the shadows cast by the hoods they all wore so she couldn’t see who her abductors were.

“Please don’t…” Becky begged; how she wished Max was there to save her.

“Prepare her,” said the middle figure of the three.

One of the robed figures bent down and released Becky from her chains. Lifted roughly to her feet by two of the sinister figures, Becky found herself being dragged from the cell out into the corridor. Two of her abductors had her by the arms while the third followed behind them. By now Becky was used to the light and she could make out the stark, whitewashed corridor and its harsh electric lights. One of her captors pushed open a door and Becky found herself in a large room that smelt of damp.

Pulled to the center of the room, one of her guards held her hands together while the other put more shackles around her wrists. As soon as they were secured, she heard a noise like an electric motor and Becky found her wrists and arms being pulled inexorably above her head. The motor stopped whining only when her arms where above her head and she could only just stand on tip toe. Looking down she saw that she was standing over a drain set into the concrete floor.

“Strip her,” said the figure that’d stood next to the door all the time she was being restrained.

The two other figures moved towards Becky with knives in their hands. Being careful not to cut her they removed her pyjamas from her body and left her to hang naked by her wrists. No sooner had they done this and stepped back that Becky felt the water hit her body. She screamed as the painfully hard water jet was played over her body, the water was freezing and her tormentors laughed as the one with the hose paid especial attention to her breasts and genital area. However, she’d managed to catch some of the water in her mouth and swallow it, although she was now soaking wet and freezing cold she no longer had the raging thirst that had tormented her.

Eventually the man with the hose cut it off and the other two robed men moved in to catch her as she was lowered so she could stand properly and her wrists were in front of her. One of her guards disconnected her from the metal cable that had been used to hoist her hands above her head but he didn’t release her from her handcuffs. Pulled roughly along by two of her guards, they followed the leader along more corridors until they came to a flight of steps that appeared to have been cut from the living rock. As she was pushed down the steps, Becky noticed that the walls were of rock too and she got the impression of being deep underground.

All too soon Becky found herself in a large cave or cavern, the electric lights hanging from the walls cast sinister shadows into the dark corners. Around the walls of the cave other men in red robes stood silently as they watched her being dragged towards a large hole in the centre of the floor. Here her two guards forced her to her knees, next they took a length of chain, which Becky now noticed had been connected to a large square stone set into the floor. They locked the chain to her handcuffs and got up and stood back. Kneeling on the floor with her wrists chained to the stone, Becky could only cower and look around with terrified eyes.

The thought had come to her that this was some sort of silly fraternity initiation ceremony; after all, whoever had kidnapped her hadn’t actually hurt her. They’d kept her prisoner, frightened her and humiliated her but they hadn’t hurt her. For a while Becky started to believe that this was all some sort of sick joke and when it was all over she’d be released probably with a pay off to keep her quiet. It was only when she caught the whiff of corruption coming from the hole in front of her that she started to tremble with fear. She’d lived on a farm for most of her life and she recognised the stench of death when she smelt it. In that moment Becky knew this wasn’t some sick game, just like she knew that she’d never see her mom and dad or her boyfriend again.

Praying as hard as she knew how, Becky sensed the robed figures start to move into position around her. Daring to raise her eyes from off the sandy floor of the cave, Becky saw that the robed men had arranged themselves around her in a sort of semi-circle with the open side facing towards the hole. On the other side of the hole stood a young man dressed only in his shorts, Becky thought she recognised him from seeing him in the cafeteria. Somewhere behind her someone began to speak.

“Machida,” the voice sounded as if it was praying, “We who serve you, we who receive all that you bestow, call upon you in this holy hour. Accept our offering and bless us with your power.”

“I pledge my life and my death,” the guy dressed only in his shorts began to speak now, “To the Omega Theta Pi fraternity and to Machida whom we all serve. On my oath, before my assembled brethren, I promise to keep our secret from this day until my death. In blood I was baptised, in blood I shall reign in his name.”

“IN HIS NAME!” Cried the robed men who stood around Becky before falling silent and retreating to stand against the walls of the cave leaving her crouched on the floor beside the hole.

Trembling with uncontrollable fear, Becky was dimly aware of a loud slithering sound coming from the hole. Dry fetid air rushed into her face forced out of the hole by whatever was coming swiftly towards her. Screaming in panic Becky pulled frantically at the chains that held her securely in place. A vile pallid snake-like creature burst into the cavern from the hole, it towered over her for a moment as it gloried in her fear and hopelessness. Opening its jaws the creature hissed in triumph as it struck Becky and buried its teeth into her shoulder. Lifting her like a toy the serpent demon dragged the still weakly struggling girl towards the hole before it vanished into the darkness below.

0=0=0=0

**Faber College Campus.**

Walking up and down the ill lit paths between the college buildings, Faith wished something would leap out of the darkness and attack her. However, so far she’d not had a single twinge of the ambush cramps and there’d been no sign of any sort of supernatural activity. Coming to a halt in her wanderings, Faith looked around her to see that she’d walked off the campus grounds and was sanding on the road where most of the fraternity houses where situated. This was a sort of ‘no-mans-land’, not really on campus but not really part of the outside world either.

Glancing to her right, Faith saw a boarded up house, above the door was a group of three Greek letters and the word Theta. Thinking hard, Faith couldn’t remember a Theta fraternity from her college orientation. This, she told herself, must be a fraternity that had closed down. Idly she wondered why no one had bought the house or knocked it down. Still feeling an almost complete lack of danger, Faith shrugged and turned her feet towards he own hall. Crossing the road she found herself passing next to Omega house. Again she paused and looked at the building for a moment or two. All the lights on the ground floor were switched off except for one over the front door. Only a couple of lights were on in the rest of the building, Faith glanced at her watch.

“Boring creeps,” Faith muttered to herself as she saw that it was only twenty-two-hundred; she sneered as she imagined all the Omegas tucked up safely in their beds.

This was in stark contrast to Delta house next door. Every light in the place appeared to be switched on and she could clearly hear the sounds of partying coming from inside. Having had no other excitement that evening, Faith cut across Omega’s lawn and over the tumbledown picket fence that separated Omega’s grounds from the jungle that was Delta’s. This close to the house the sounds of partying came clearly to her ears. The Delta guys sounded determined to have a good time or wake the dead. Frowning at the thought that Delta might actually be trying to raise the dead, she moved towards the building through the overgrown shrubs and bushes.

Standing on an up-turned trash bin, Faith peered in through a window. As she’d got closer to the window the sounds of partying had decreased until there was almost complete silence. For a moment, Faith thought some one had spotted her; she’d kept still for a moment or two as she hid in the undergrowth, when no one appeared to challenge her she continued towards the house. Looking into the house through a none too clean window, Faith saw a group of about six guys dressed in their pyjama’s or T-shirts and shorts standing in front of a crowd of what she assumed were Delta house members. This was obviously some sort of initiation ceremony. Noting the complete lack of sacrificial virgins, Faith didn’t burst through the window and kill everything in the room. Instead she watched as a Delta, carrying a big book and wearing a Native American headdress climbed up onto a chair in front of the initiates. He raised his right hand and began to speak.

“I…state your name,” he began.

“I, state your name,” repeated back the initiates.

“Do hereby pledge allegiance to the frat,” intoned the guy in the headdress as the initiates repeated the words back to him.

“Erm…” Headdress guy seemed lost for something else to say for a moment before adding, “With liberty and fraternity for all.”

“Sergeant-at-arms,” headdress man called and a slob of a short guy stepped forward, “do your duty.”

The short slob then worked his way along the short line of initiates giving each of them their fraternity name. Faith smiled as the slob got to the end of the line, there was a loud cheer and the initiates were liberally sprayed with beer by their frat brothers. Smiling to herself Faith got down off the trash bin and headed back towards the road. Perhaps Gunney Leeka was right, maybe Delta house was harmless after all. So far as she could see they weren’t doing anything that she hadn’t experienced back in basic. Okay there’d been the odd buzzing in her ears and that moment when she’d felt that she wanted to obey the short slob. But that was probably down to pharmaceuticals more than dark mojo. No, she told herself, while she’d keep an eye on Delta and make sure none of the female cadets got involved with them, she didn’t think they were dangerous or evil.

0=0=0=0

Walking on through the campus proper, Faith came to an area where the street lamps that were supposed to illuminate the pathway had all gone out. Pausing in mid stride, she wondered where she should report this deficiency to or maybe she should just form a pressure group and force the college authorities to improve campus lighting. Right then her stomach gave a slight twinge of cramp. Just in time Faith had her hands up ready to meet the three black clad figures that came out of the shadows at her.

As soon as she laid her hands on the first figure she knew for sure that these were humans and not vampires or any one of the other monsters that lurked in the darkest corners of the world. Grabbing hold of her first assailant as he charged at her, Faith used his own impetus to guide him into hard contact with a tree. His head hit the tree trunk with a satisfying *Clunk!* as he fell to the grass at the foot of the tree.

By this time Faith’s other two attackers had grabbed her by the arms and were trying to drag her into the dark under the trees on the other side of the path. Using her super-soldier strength, but not enough to kill, Faith forced her two attackers together hard enough to knock the wind from their lungs. Both men fell to their knees as Faith stood over them. Taking one by the collar of his jacket she pulled him roughly to his feet and slapped him with the palm of her hand in the middle of his chest. The blow was sufficiently powerful to knock the guy head over heels into the grass but not hard enough to break any ribs.

Although these guys had annoyed her, Faith knew that they were probably just students out on some kind of fraternity prank; they really weren’t worth the trouble of killing. With two assailants down Faith turned to deal with the third only to find him struggling to his feet and making off into the night. Turning in place Faith looked to see the other guy she’d knocked onto his arse stagger to his feet, take one look at her and run for cover. This left the guy she’d bounced off the tree. He was still lying on the ground; a weak moan escaped his lips as she turned him onto his back. After checking that he was still alive and likely to remain that way, Faith pulled the ski mask from his head and looked him in the face.

A thin trickle of blood ran down his face from under his scalp, obviously he’d been cut when Faith had thrown him into the tree. But that didn’t worry her right at the moment, looking into his face, Faith recognised him as one of the guys who’d burst into her room with the CO2 extinguishers on her first night in college. Quickly and efficiently, she searched his pockets coming up with a wallet and a cellphone. Checking the wallet she found a student ID in the name of Kyle Zolin, she put the card back into his wallet and replaced it in his jacket were she’d found it. Next she took his cell apart, retrieved the symcard and slipped it into her own pocket before crushing the cell in her hand. Letting the pieces of shattered plastic fall to the ground, she lifted the groaning figure up and dragged him over to a lamppost. Using his belt, Faith tied him to the lamppost. Patting the student on the cheek Faith left him hanging there as she headed on back to her room. To be honest she wouldn’t lose any sleep if he was attacked by some barbecue fork wielding maniac. Him and his buddies shouldn’t attack ‘defenceless’ young women as they walked home at night.

0=0=0=0

Arriving back at her room just after eleven, Faith locked the door, peeled off her clothes and headed for the shower. Once she was clean and dry, she wrapped herself up in a robe and sat down at her computer. After sending a report of everything she’d seen and her own thoughts on the situation to ASID headquarters, Faith checked her other e-mails. She only had the one; however the content of the e-mail made up for the lack of quantity. Smiling, Faith read the message through twice just to make sure it said what she thought it said.

Glancing around her room she noted that it was clean and tidy, eight years in the army sort of guaranteed that. After typing a quick reply, Faith switched off her computer and the lights, discarding her robe she climbed into bed and smiled. It had been far too long, but tomorrow night she wouldn’t be sleeping alone.

0=0=0=0


	7. Chapter 7

7.

**JROTC, Friday afternoon.**

“…Okay people,” Faith called a halt to the PT session, “gather round and sit down.”

Still breathing heavily from their physical exertions the cadets gathered around Faith in a semi-circle and sat down on the grass. One or two of the cadets, Faith noted, had sat down before they fell down, she made a mental note to keep an eye on these cadets.

“Right,” Faith waited as the cadets stopped fidgeting and settled down, “as some of you may have heard I was attacked last night as I walked home…” there were gasps and a few angry comments from the little crowd of cadets, “…I doubt it was anything more serious than a little hazing.”

Faith really didn’t believe that her attack was anything more than a fraternity prank that had gone too far. The friends of the guy she’d tied to the lamppost must have come back and released him because he’d not been there in the morning, either than or the vampires had got him.

“However,” Faith continued, “let this be a warning to all of ya, especially you women. On Monday I’m going to start teaching you the basics of unarmed combat, but before then I thought I’d give you a little demonstration,” Faith smiled, “I’ll need a volunteer…”

Several of the male cadets put their hands in the air as had, Faith was also pleased to see, two or three of the female cadet's hands raised.

“Mister Neidermyer!” Faith called, Neidermyer had not been one of those who’d put his hand up, “Front and centre!”

“But…” Neidermyer looked around and saw two dozen pairs of eyes looking at him, he couldn’t back down now.

Slowly getting to his feet Neidermyer walked out to stand in front of the class. Looking down at Faith he thought that this might actually turn to his advantage, this dyke-bitch had humiliated him from day one. If he could beat her into the ground he could start getting things back to how they used to be with him as top dog.

“Okay, people,” Faith called out getting everyone’s attention, “look at me, I’m nothing special,” she lied, “I’m five-foot-five, how tall are you Mister Neidermyer, six-one? Six-two?”

“Six-two, Ma’am,” Neidermyer replied.

“And I bet you work out too,” Faith smiled in a friendly way, “right?”

“Yes Ma’am,” Neidermyer nodded.

“So,” Faith turned back to her class, “any independent observer would say that Mister Neidermyer here should kick my ass, right?”

There was a muttering of assent from the class.

“Okay Neidermyer,” Faith took up her stance in front of the tall cadet, “I want you to try and grab me and force me to the ground.”

Neidermyer smiled confidently as he went into a fighting crouch, the little bitch was right he did work out and he’d been taking judo lessons for the last couple of years, plus he’d boxed at school. He was used to winning fights and crushing the spirit of anyone who tried to face him, he really didn’t see how this lesbo-bitch hoped to win. 

Lunging at Faith, Neidermyer grabbed hold of Faith’s track suit top with both hands, his plan was to put her down with a simple hip throw, Faith had other ideas. Not even using a fraction of her super-soldier speed or strength, Faith brought her left hand up to take Neidermyer my his right wrist, her right hand flashed in over the top of Neidermyer’s left arm and she dug her thumb in hard between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand.

With a surprised cry, Neidermyer found his hand opening and his arm being twisted painfully behind his back. Next the world seemed to start spinning as he found his legs being swept out from under him. Landing heavily on his back Neidermyer gasped as Faith straightened out his arm and held it against the elbow joint and by the wrist. Suddenly the pain and the pressure was removed from his arm and he found Faith had stepped away from him and was looking down at him dispassionately.

“Okay, Neidermyer, on your feet,” Faith ordered, “next I want to attack me from behind.”

Turning her back on her victim, Faith waited for him to attack, if he had any sense he’d try to kick her legs from under her and then stomp her while she was down; she seriously doubted Neidermyer’s intelligence and half expected him to try and overpower her again. Sighing, Faith sensed Neidermyer coming into the attack, his type couldn’t help themselves. He was a bully and it was fairly obvious that he thought that a woman’s place was flat on her back with her legs wide open. In some small way she intended to teach him the error of his ways.

Neidermyer’s arm went around Faith’s neck and he started to squeeze, he was going for a sleeper hold. With almost insolent slowness, Faith took hold of his elbow with one hand and his wrist with the other. Pulling down on his wrist and pushing up on his elbow, she soon had Neidermyer in an arm lock again. Once more she swept his legs from under him with a well placed kick; holding him down on the ground by keeping hold of his wrist and applying pressure to his elbow, Faith looked up at the rest of the class.

“Okay, people,” Faith said not in the slightest out of breath, “I’ll show ya how to do this on Monday, but until then I don’t want any of ya trying this out for y’selves, right?”

“Yes, Ma’am!” the cadets called as one.

“Until ya know what you’re doin’ this sorta stuff is dangerous,” letting go of Neidermyer, Faith once again stepped away from him as she continued to speak to the cadets, “I’ve got nothing planned for ya this weekend so go off an’ enjoy y’selves. Now dismiss an’ get outta here!”

“Ma’am! Yes, Ma’am!” The cadets didn’t need to be told twice; they jumped to their feet and started to head for their dorms when they were stopped in their tracks by the roar of frustration issuing forth from Neidermyer’s mouth.

Caught a little by surprise, Faith really didn’t think Neidermyer was that stupid, she turned to see Neidermyer rush at her. His lips were pulled back from his teeth in a feral snarl of hate while his face had turned red from anger and frustration. Just in time Faith changed the fist she’d made into an open hand a split second before she hit him in the chest. To Neidermyer it felt like he’d run into a wall, his legs flew out from under him as he seemed to fly through the air to once again land heavily on his back. Opening his eyes he saw Faith standing over him with her hands on her hips.

“When you’re finished, Mr Neidermyer,” Faith spoke slowly so there’d be no further misunderstandings, “ya obviously didn’t hear my order to ‘dismiss’ or were you trying for some payback?”

The realisation that Faith was giving him an out almost made him try to attack her again. By suggesting that he hadn’t heard her order to ‘dismiss’, she was saying that his attack on her was due to his mistaken belief that the lesson was still in progress. However, if he admitted to hearing the order that would mean he was trying to attack his superior which would mean he’d be in deep trouble. Deciding that it was best to let it go right now, Neidermyer tried to sit up, a twinge of pain from his back and neck slowed him down.

“You hurt?” Faith didn’t bother waiting for an answer, “Get over to the medical centre and get y’self checked out, now MOVE!”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Neidermyer got painfully to his feet and rubbed his neck as he watched Faith walk briskly from the field; one day, he promised himself, one day he’d hear her beg for mercy.

0=0=0=0

Glancing at her watch, Faith calculated she had enough time to grab a snack before going back to her room and showering before her guest arrived for the weekend. Hurrying on towards the cafeteria she didn’t notice, Otter and Boon from Delta house watching her from the bleachers.

“You know,” Otter turned to his friend, “I may reconsider the entire seduction thing and Ms Lehane.”

“Hey,” Boon knew he needed to get Otter’s mind off the idea of spawn and Faith Lehane, “You don’t want to do that…”

“Why not?” Otter asked sharply, his face turning slightly demonic as he spoke.

“Look,” Boon smiled slowly his old friend didn’t scare him, “if she’s full of your spawn she won’t be able to beat on Neidermyer.”

“I…” Otter stopped speaking and thought about this for a second or two, “…I see what you mean,” he nodded his head slowly.

Spawn? Neidermyer having the crap kicked out of him? Which was the more important in the great scheme of things? The question was a no-brainer really.

“Okay so I won’t impregnate her with my spawn,” Otter looked wistfully in the direction that Faith had gone in, “You’re right, Neidermyer’s humiliation at the hands of that woman is much more important.”

“I knew you’d see things my way,” Boon gave a quiet sigh on relief; there was something off about Ms Lehane, something that made his alarm bells ring whenever he looked at her; he needed to talk to some demons, he needed to find out what Ms Lehane’s secret was.

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s room, Potter Hall.**

Sitting on her bed, Faith watched herself in the mirror as she brushed out her hair. It had taken longer than she’d thought to grab something to eat and shower. But that might work out for the best, it would mean she wouldn’t have to change twice. She had something planned for tonight that would involve her and her partner getting dressed up and…

A soft knock on the door almost made Faith drop her hairbrush, her heart pounding in her chest as she sprang to her feet and rushed over to the door. Pausing with her hand on the door knob she tried to steady her breathing. Opening the door wide, Faith stood and gazed at the woman standing there waiting to be let in.

“Hi,” Willow smiled at Faith as she stood in the doorway; when Faith didn’t reply immediately her smile started to slip from her face, “is this a bad time?” Willow was frowning now, “I can come back later if you…Agh!”

Grabbing hold of Willow by the arms, Faith pulled her into her room. Kicking the door closed she locked it and pulled the travel bag and suitcase from Willow’s hands.

“Is everything okay…Ooooh!” Willow found herself being picked up and carried over to the bed where she was unceremoniously dumped; she bounced on the mattress a couple of times, “Hey Faith is everything…Oooooh!”

Pulling off her robe Faith jumped on to the bed and coincidentally on top of Willow as she crushed the red head’s lips against her own and her hand worked its way down across Willow’s body and then up her legs towards her panties.

“For a minute there,” Willow mumbled between Faith’s desperate kisses, “I thought you weren’t pleased to see me… I see now I was wrong!”

“Shut-up and get ya clothes off,” Faith panted as she slipped out of her own panties and bra, “we got too much time to make up to waste it talking.”

“Yes, Ma’am!” Willow laughed as she kicked off her shoes and started to remove her dress.

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s room, some time later.**

“Please tell me you brought your dancing things,” Faith asked as she lay next to Willow.

“But of course,” Willow reassured her, “you think I’d come visit my best girl without bringing my tango stuff.”

As Faith had worked her way up the army hierarchy she’d found herself having to attend more social functions where dancing like a stripper on speed wasn’t fully appreciated. So, with the same single minded determination Faith showed to most challenges she faced in her military career, she’d taken dance lessons. She’d learnt to waltz, but what had really caught her imagination was Latin American dancing, particularly the tango. Her slayer strength and agility had made her a natural, plus the fact that there appeared to be a tango dance club in almost every city in the world let her indulge in he favoured pastime wherever she might be posted. On discovering what her knew found girlfriend’s ‘dirty secret’ was, Willow had taken lessons herself and had soon joined Faith out on the dance floor.

“You found a club?” Willow asked.

“Yeah in Richmond,” Faith nodded, “did you bring ya car?”

“No, I hired one at the airport,” Willow paused before asking the $64,000 question, “Do they mind girls…?”

“Look,” Faith rolled over onto her side and grinned into Willow face, “I checked the joint out, there’s several gay couples, both guys and gals. We’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” Willow nodded, she knew Faith had to be careful, don’t ask, don’t tell only went so far; it was unfair but that’s how it was so she’d learn to live with it. “If you’re sure its okay?”

“Sure I’m sure,” Faith grinned again, “and it’s formal dress tonight so we can go in an’ knock ‘em dead!”

“Cool,” Willow agreed, “so if it’s formal wear, shouldn’t we get up and start making ourselves even more drop dead gorgeous than we already are?”

Rolling over, Faith glanced at her watch, time was marching on.

“Yeah, ‘spose so,” she admitted, there’d be time enough for making out later.

0=0=0=0

After several false starts, Faith found herself checking herself out in the mirror while Willow was struggling into her heels. Hair, make up, all was perfect as Faith ran her hand lightly over the long, figure hugging red dress she was wearing. It was nice to be really feminine every now and again she told herself. Turning slightly she admired the matching red shoes and the ankle to thigh slit in her dress that exposed her left leg and gave her plenty of freedom of movement. Looking over at Willow, Faith felt the desire start to rise again in her chest. Willow wore a matching outfit but in black.

“Okay,” Willow called as she came to stand next to Faith; linking their hands together they admired themselves in the mirror, “ready to tango on down?”

“Yeah,” Faith agreed, her eyes fell on the tattoo on her right upper arm; she really wished she knew were she’d got that, “we’re just tooooo hot!”

Giggling like schoolgirls on a spree the two women grabbed their clutch bags and headed on out the door.

0=0=0=0

“Wow!” Ashley Simmons exclaimed as she saw the two women come out of Potter Hall and head for the parking lot, “Is that Chief Lehane?”

“Looks like,” Liza Taylor agreed as the two girls stopped to watch for a moment.

“Who’s the woman with her?” Ashley wanted to know as she studied the mysterious red head for a moment.

“I expect that’s her girlfriend,” Liza pulled her friend away and led her by the arm, they were going to a gig at Wilkins Hall there was a band playing, some group called The Creatures of the Night, they were supposed to be good.

“Girlfriend?” Ashley frowned a little.

“Yeah,” Liza hurried her friend along a little.

“You mean like a girlfriend who’s more than a friend who happens to be a girl?” Ashley looked to Lisa for confirmation.

“Yeah, I ‘spect so,” Liza verified.

“Who’d have guessed?” Ashley sighed as she looked back over her shoulder.

“Just about everyone except you, honey!” Liza laughed, “First time I saw her checking you out I knew she wasn’t one-hundred percent straight.”

“Checking me out?” Ashley didn’t know whether to feel flattered or worried.

“Don’t worry, girlfriend,” Liza grinned, “as soon as she found out you were a Middy she lost interest.”

“She did?” Once again Ashley felt just a hint of disappointment.

“Come on, girl,” Liza pulled Ashley on down the path, “let’s go find you a hot guy so you don’t go all gay on me. Your mom will kill me otherwise!”

0=0=0=0

**Theta House.**

Kneeling on the floor in the middle of the room Kyle Zolin eyed his kidnappers warily. After the attack on the army-bitch that had gone so badly wrong (who’d have guessed the woman would be so strong) he’d been left tied to a lamppost while his so-called buddies had run out on him. Next thing he knew this dumb looking guy and a girl with orange hair were untying him and had dragged him back to a semi-derelict frat house. He’d spent the day tied up in a closet they’d only pulled him out a few minutes ago and now he was kneeling on the floor while the girl and her three male friends watched him hungrily.

“What’s your name?” Toyah asked sharply, it had never bothered her knowing her food’s name like it did some vampires.

“K-Kyle,” Kyle looked around nervously, “why don’t you let me go? I won’t tell, honest.”

“Shut-up!” Toyah ordered, “I’m asking the questions,” she glanced around at her fellow vamps they looked hungry; perhaps she should let them snack on this guy before the gig. “Look what happens next depends how you answer the next question.”

“O-okay,” Kyle swallowed trying to remove the nervous lump in his throat.

“Do you by any chance play lead guitar?” Toyah leant towards her victim eager to hear his answer.

Whatever his answer was she’d be ahead of the game; if he said yes they’d turn him and have a new lead guitar. If he said no, they’d have a yummy snack before the gig.

“W-what?” Kyle asked not realising his life hung in the balance.

“It’s a simple enough question,” Toyah sighed, “do you play guitar?”

“No!” Kyle replied and sealed his fate.

“Okay guys,” Toyah got up from her chair, “eat him, but don’t get blood on your clothes we’ve still got a gig tonight!”

0=0=0=0


	8. Chapter 8

8.

**The Masochism Tango.**

_I ache for the touch of your lips, dear,  
But much more for the touch of your whips, dear.   
You can raise welts   
Like nobody else,   
As we dance to the masochism tango.*_

*: The Masochism Tango; Tom Lehrer.

Standing up, Faith took Willow’s hand in her own and gestured towards the dance floor with her free hand. Smiling coyly up at her lover, Willow rose to her feet and let herself be led between the crowded tables. Passing a table, Faith reached out and took a red rose from a vase. Once out on the dance floor, Faith rested her hand on Willow’s hip while Willow placed her hand on Faith’s bare shoulder. Taking the rose in her left hand Faith used the flower to trace a line from Willow’s forehead down to her chin.

Just as Faith was about to continue the line down between Willow’s breasts she snatched the flower from Faith’s hand and placed it between her teeth just as the music changed and they set course across the floor their bodies locked together. Willow bent over backwards, held in place by Faith’s strong right arm; standing upright again Willow had the rose taken from her mouth by Faith who now held the flower between her own teeth. With her right arm firmly around Willow’s waist, Faith dragged her across the floor for half a dozen paces before stopping and letting Willow right herself again. Once more Willow took the flower, this time in her hand, before twirling away from Faith only to stop and spin back into her waiting arms. Falling to her knees at Faith’s feet, Willow ran her hand down the line of Faith’s thigh as the dark haired woman watched her partner impassively. Lifting Willow back to her feet, Faith led them across the dance floor only to bump into a couple coming the other way.

“Sorry,” Faith muttered as she manoeuvred Willow and herself out of the way; coming to a full stop, Faith let go of Willow and just stood there watching the crowded dance floor.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” Willow asked concerned by the dark look on her partner’s face.

“It’s too crowded,” Faith turned to face Willow, “what ya say we get outta here?”

“Yeah, okay,” Willow shrugged, maybe it was a little crowded, who’d have suspected there’d be so many devotees of the tango in and around Richmond?

Allowing herself to be led by the hand back to their table, the two young women collected their things before heading towards the door. Frowning to herself a little, Willow noticed that something was really annoying Faith.

“Hey, Faith,” Willow called after the rapidly moving woman, once they’d got outside into the parking lot, “what’s up?”

Not answering until she got to the car, Faith eventually stopped and turned to face Willow.

“I’m sorry,” Faith replied simply.

“Sorry for what?” Willow answered, putting a smile on her face, Faith looked really upset about something.

“I’ve missed you so much,” Faith admitted, “an’ I really wanted tonight to be special.”

“Special?” Willow’s smile faded for a moment, “Of course it was special.”

“No it wasn’t,” Faith turned away from Willow and stared out over the hood of the car into the night, “it was noisy an’ crowded an’ hot an’…”

“Hey, hey,” Willow placed her hand on Faith’s shoulder and turned her to face her again, “it was fun. Okay the dance floor was like ‘rush-hour’ in London, but…” Willow stepped up close to Faith and slipped her arms around her waist, “…we could always make-out in the parking lot here.”

The material of their dresses made rustling sounds as their bodies moulded against each and their lips met. So wrapped up were they in the touch and scent of each others bodies that they didn’t notice they were being watched.

0=0=0=0

“Hey look at that!” Fred Pippin pulled his buddy Frank Smith to a halt and gestured to the two figures entwined in each others arms.

“Wow!” Frank smirked, “They’re really getting into it.”

The two friends had just left a meeting of the ‘Stop the War Alliance’ and were heading back to campus when Fred had noticed the two women making out in the parking lot. They watched the women kiss for a minute then started to walk on towards their own vehicle when the women finally pulled away from each other.

“Hey, hold it!” Fred once again pulled his buddy to a halt.

“What?” Frank had no real objection to watching a couple of hot chicks make out, but he wasn’t a perv and he wanted to get back to the dorm, he had an essay due on Monday.

“Look,” Fred pointed towards the couple, “isn’t that the new army bitch?”

“What?” Frank looked closely at the brunette of the couple, “Hey, man, you’re right!”

The Alliance had found out about Faith Lehane, how she was an army spy sent to screw with their perfectly legal protests against the war. They’d decided to force her off the campus by subjecting her to a series of pranks, but that hadn’t worked out. The woman either didn’t seem to notice or she over reacted and hit back…violently. Then the previous night, Fred, Frank and their buddy Kyle had decided to teach her a lesson and jumped her as she was heading home in the dark. Frank was the first to admit they’d had their asses whipped; but they should never have left Kyle behind. In the morning they’d not been able to find him and he’d not been seen since. Fred hadn’t been too worried he’d seen Kyle with some girl called Becky a couple of times and he was of the opinion that Kyle and Becky were screwing somewhere, Frank wasn’t so sure.

“Now we’ve got her,” Fred smiled.

“What’d’ya mean?” Frank wanted to know.

“Look,” he gestured to where the two women were getting into their car, “she’s obviously gay an’ the army don’t like their bitches to be gay.”

“What are you talking about,” Frank turned to give his friend a puzzled look, “and what’s with all the fake street jive?”

“Sorry,” Fred turned away in embarrassment for a moment, “but look she’s gay, we can blackmail her.”

“You think?” again Frank wasn’t so sure, he didn’t think Faith Lehane would react well to being blackmailed.

0=0=0=0

**A hill overlooking Richmond.**

Sighing contentedly, Willow lay back in her seat and watched the lights of Richmond spread out below them. In the driver’s seat, Faith shifted her position so she could lie on her side and watch Willow in the reflected light of the city.

“You know,” Willow turned her head to face Faith, “I’ve never made out in a car before, y’know, ‘parked’.” 

She giggled like a schoolgirl, okay there’d been a couple of times Oz and herself had got a little ‘hot and heavy’ in his van. But that wasn’t like now, they’d never gone anywhere special just to make out.

“I wish I could remember if I had,” Faith sighed sadly, “I don’t even know if I went to school and had a boyfriend.”

For a moment Willow kept quiet, she felt guilty about not telling Faith the truth about her life before her coma. However from what she knew about Faith pre-coma she suspected Faith’d had at least one boyfriend and had probably made out in a car somewhere, whether it was quite as romantic as the present situation she didn’t know, but she was fairly sure she had.

“I expect you did,” Willow replied softly Willow rolled towards Faith and rested her hand on Faith’s chest just below her breasts, “but let’s not worry about that, huh? We’re here together and that’s all that matters.”

“I love you Will,” Faith kissed Willow softly on the lips before drawing back, “but I think ya oughta know…”

“Know what?” Willow asked not sure what Faith was going to say, but she guessed that the next word out of Faith’s mouth was going to be _but_.

“I’m bi y’know?” Faith admitted not able to look into Willow’s eyes, “I like guys as well as girls…”

“I do know what ‘bi’ means, honey,” so, she was wrong, the first word hadn’t been ‘but’.

“But…” Faith hesitated.

Oh well, Willow thought, better late than never.

“…but,” Faith searched frantically for the right words, “but I never seem to be able to have the, y’know, relation thing with guys. Since I woke up I’ve had two close relationships…”

“Two?”

“Yeah,” Faith nodded, “One with Mrs B, you remember Brenda?”

Yes Willow remembered Mrs B, a short blonde army girl who Faith had called ‘B’ and that was far too scary as far as Willow was concerned, Mrs B, B, Buffy? Luckily Faith had never joined the dots and why should she? Faith’d not had much contact with Buffy. But Willow did remember all the flirting between Buffy and Faith back in Sunnydale, mostly coming from Faith, but not all of it, not by a long way.

“Hey!” Faith nudged Willow in the ribs with her elbow, “You awake there?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Willow blinked herself back to the present, “what were you saying?”

“Look,” Faith pushed herself up on her arm so she was looking down at Willow, “I was saying that I’d only had two real relationships that I can remember an’ both of them have been with women.”

“Right,” Willow nodded, “okay one was with Mrs B who was the other with?”

“You dumb ass?” Faith laughed, “What ya think this is?” she gestured to encompass the car, the both of them and the world in general; suddenly the good humour left Faith’s face, “Hey,” she watched Willow closely, “are you trying to say that you…”

“No, no, no!” Willow reached up to caress Faith’s face with her hand, “I love you too Baby, I just didn’t think that I meant that much to you.”

“But you do,” Faith kissed Willow’s lips again only this time she lingered there for some time before breaking away.

“You know,” Willow licked her lips as she tried to control her wildly beating heart, “making out in a car is waaay over rated,” the words rushed from her mouth, “y’know what with steering wheels an’ stuff getting in the way. What say we head back to your room?”

“Best offer I’ve had all night,” Faith sat up straight and adjusted the back of her seat before putting on her safety belt and starting the engine, “Buckle up!”

“Oh no!” Willow squeaked as she frantically tried to get her seat back into the upright position while at the same time buckling up her seat belt, “Nooooooo!” she screamed as the car shot off backwards towards the track that would take them to the main road. “Pleeeez Faith!” she begged as the car skidded in a tight circle until it was facing down the track, “Not so FAAAAAAAAAAST!”

0=0=0=0

**Faber College Campus.**

Releasing her death grip on the dashboard, Willow started to relax as they drove on to the college campus and Faith slowed to a sedate twenty miles an hour. Looking out of the window Willow saw they were driving along a road that seemed to contain nothing but frat houses. Just at the moment it also appeared to contain a crowd of worried looking students and several emergency vehicles with their lights flashing.

“What’s goin’ on here?” Faith asked her inner cop as she brought the car to a halt, she turned to look at Willow, “I’m goin’ to take a look, see what’s happening, you stay here.”

“No way!” Willow opened the door and was out of the car before Faith was.

“Okay,” Faith smiled as she reached into the car to retrieve her clutch bag, “but stay close, huh?”

Walking towards the crowd, Faith saw campus and city police cars parked outside one of the frat houses along with an ambulance. Looking towards the ambulance she caught a glimpse of someone on a gurney being loaded into the back of the vehicle. Pushing through the crowd she was eventually stopped by a cop on crowd control. Reaching into her bag she retrieved a wallet and flipped it open to show the cop her shield.

“Federal Agent,” she told the cop as she pushed past him, turning she gestured to Willow, “she’s with me.”

Walking rapidly over to the back of the ambulance, Faith and Willow looked inside to see a figure being attended to by an EMT.

“Crap,” Faith breathed quietly as she recognised the girl, “what’s wrong with her?”

“You know her?” asked the EMT; Faith flashed her badge and the EMT nodded, “serious blood loss looks like she’d been bitten, her friend’s already on her way to hospital.”

“Her friend?” Faith gave the EMT a desperate look.

“Yeah, another girl, same injuries,” the EMT finished setting up Ashley’s drip, “you coming?”

“Yeah!” Faith climbed into the ambulance followed swiftly by Willow, they sat on the opposite side of the ambulance out of the EMT’s way. As he moved to the back of the vehicle to shut the rear door, Willow leaned across to the girl and lifted the dressing away from the wound on her neck.

Turning towards Faith as she sat down again, Willow mouthed the word ‘Vampire’. Nodding, Faith asked the EMT, “Do you know the name of the other girl?”

“Erm,” the EMT thought for a moment, “Liza someone.”

“Crap,” Faith repeated, she’d hoped that Liza wouldn’t be the other victim but deep inside she sort of knew it had to be, the girls went everywhere together.

“Yeah,” the EMT nodded, “don’t know how this happened, some sorta dog bite I think, never seen anything quite like it.”

“I have,” Willow spoke up for the first time, “just clean up the wound and replace the blood she should be fine,” her words belied her true feeling, vampires on campus; this was UC Sunnydale all over again!

“Any idea what sorta animal did this?” the EMT asked Willow.

“The sort that only comes out at night,” Willow replied before turning to ask Faith, “you said something about a girl disappearing?”

“Yeah,” Faith nodded her head slowly, “a couple of days ago, she was a classmate of Liza’s, you think this is connected?”

“Bit of a coincidence if its not,” Willow sighed, “any other disappearances since the start of the semester?”

“Not that I know of,” Faith shrugged, “Gunney Leeka told me there were always a few early drop outs…”

“Gunney Leeka?” Willow gave Faith a confused look.

“Marine at the JROTC,” Faith explained.

“Okay we’re here,” announced the EMT as he got ready to get the gurney and the injured girl into the ER.

With a squeal of tyres on tarmac the ambulance slid to a halt, the rear doors were opened almost immediately and suddenly the relative quiet of the ambulance was shattered as emergency room staff pounced on the injured girl. Trying to keep out of everyone’s way, Faith and Willow watched as an episode of ‘ER’ unfolded before them. Very soon they found themselves alone in the back of the ambulance. Climbing down onto the hard standing outside the ER they made their way into the hospital itself, Faith once again flashing her badge to the cop on the door.

“Wish I had one of those,” Willow commented as they walked into the brightly lit ER, “y’know something like this happened when I was at college.”

“Yeah?” Faith glanced over at Willow, “Tell me more.”

“Quick version, a gang of vamps were killing and eating freshmen and making it look as if they’d just dropped out,” Willow shrugged, “they’d been doing it for years. They even hid out in an old frat house.”

“Crap!” Faith felt like kicking herself, how could she have been so stupid, Theta House, “Looks like we’ve got a copycat.”

“We do?” Willow looked in wonder at her girlfriend, she’d thought she’d be in for at least a few days investigating, but from the look on Faith’s face she had it all worked out; pride in her girlfriend swelled in Willow’s chest, “Have I ever told you how hot you are?”

“Erm, what?” Faith did a double take as Willow apparently flew off at a tangent, “Look, no, the pieces all fit…”

“What pieces would those be, Ms Lehane?” Said a male voice from behind her.

“Gibbs!” Faith stared in surprise at the NCIS agent, “How the hell did you get here so fast?”

“NCIS never sleeps,” Gibbs shrugged, “Can I ask what your interest is in two Navy Middy’s?”

“They’re cadets with Faber College JROTC,” Faith replied, “I’m a part time instructor there while I’m doing a course at the college.”

“Going up in the world, Sergeant?” Gibbs asked his face breaking into a faint smile.

“Its ‘Chief’ now,” Faith held up her shield, “ASID.”

“Always knew you were going to make the big time Faith,” Gibbs grinned, “who’s your friend?” 

“Willow Rosenberg,” Willow stepped forward and held out her hand to Gibbs, “I’m a civilian consultant with ASID, I was…erm…visiting Faith when…” slowly Willow ran out of words as she realised what this must look like.

Looking from one woman to the other, Gibbs pursed his lips, noting their evening dresses.

“Little overdressed for investigating an assault aren’t you Chief?” Gibbs asked with a grin.

“New army policy,” Faith shot back, “formal evening wear during all investigations.”

“Hey boss, where do you want…?” DiNozzo’s voice faded away to nothing as he recognised Faith talking to his boss.

“Agent DiNutso,” Faith smiled remembering the time she’d beaten the crap out of the NCIS agent, “Hey, McGee,” she nodded to the junior agent while casting an appreciative eye over the dark haired woman with the two NCIS men.

“Officer David,” McGee supplied sensing the question in Faith’s mind, “she replaced Kate.”

“Kate!” Faith nodded knowingly, “Sorry I couldn’t make it to the funeral.”

Unlike Gibbs the three agents looked as if they’d been dragged from their beds, Faith was still wondering how Gibbs and his people had got here so fast from Norfolk when he came up behind her again.

“So, Chief,” Gibbs spoke quietly so only Faith could hear, “what pieces and how do they fit?”

0=0=0=0


	9. Chapter 9

9.

**Sacred Heart Hospital, Faber.**

“McGee?” Ziva spoke quietly as she arched a quizzical eyebrow, “DiNutso?”

“Ah! Yes,” McGee glanced up and down the corridor, DiNozzo was hovering near Gibbs well out of earshot; he took Ziva by the arm and after a slight struggle pulled her to one side. “It was a case we were working on before you joined us,” McGee started to explain, “Sergeant Lehane had been kidnapped and we’d got a lead that she was being held in some old ammo bunkers at Norfolk.”

“And?” Ziva glanced up the corridor at Tony.

“Well,” McGee couldn’t help smirking as he related the story, “Tony found her just as she was escaping from her prison…”

“Obviously a woman of great moral strength and determination,” Ziva nodded approvingly as she studied Faith from afar.

“Yeah,” McGee agreed, “you could say that. Anyway, Faith was going out as Tony was coming in and she got the drop on him thinking he was her kidnapper, she beat the crap out of him, took his gun and handcuffed him.” A wide smile spread across McGee’s face as he remembered Tony’s bruises, “She wouldn’t let him go ‘til some army colonel told her to.”

“This is good to know,” Ziva gave McGee a conspiratorial look.

“What, that Tony got beat up by a woman?”

“No,” Ziva shook her head, “but that is also good, I mean it is good to know that I am not the only woman in the world who wants him dead!”

0=0=0=0

“So, Chief,” Gibbs spoke quietly so only Faith could hear, “what pieces and how do they fit?”

“Yeah,” for a fraction of a second Faith considered telling Gibbs that the details of the case (or at least what she suspected) were classified, but she knew Gibbs well enough to know that wouldn’t stop him from investigating anyway. “Look,” Faith cast Willow a worried glance, “why don’t we go into Liza and Ashley’s room and we can talk about this…” she glared at DiNozzo who’d been trying to listen in on what was being said, “…alone.”

Taking Gibbs by the arm Faith almost dragged him into the room, Willow followed closing the door firmly behind them, casting a very minor privacy spell as she did so.

“You’re gonna find this hard to believe Gibbs,” Faith announced as they all stood looking down at the sleeping forms of the two young woman. 

The girl’s looked so pale, almost as white as the pillows on which their heads rested. Each had a tube leading to a bag of blood and wires snaked to machines which monitored their life signs.

“What am I going to find hard to believe, Chief?” Gibbs glanced at Willow who’d said nothing since they come into the room; the redhead almost looked as if she was guarding the door, Gibbs wondered why she would do that.

“Come here,” Faith walked the few steps over to stand next to Liza’s bed; she reached out and gently peeled back the dressing from the wound on Liza’s neck, “what do you make of that.”

Being careful not to breath on the wound, Gibbs bent down to study the puncture marks, after a moment he stood up straight and turned to look at Faith.

“So,” Gibbs said with a shrug, “it’s a vampire bite I’d kinda guessed this was a vampire attack.”

“What!?” Shrieked Willow, panicking slightly as she looked to Faith for an explanation.

Misunderstanding Willow’s outburst, Gibbs turned to look at Willow before looking back at Faith, “You’re friend isn’t taking the news very calmly.”

“No,” Faith sighed, “it’s not that, it’s the fact that you know about vampires…” Faith stopped talking for a moment before looking at Gibbs with a deep frown on her face, “…how come ya not surprised that I know about vamps?”

“Hey, come on,” Gibbs chuckled, “after that business in Jeffersonville that you were involved in I did some checking. Then when Colonel Mann recruited you into ASID I just put two and two together. Hey,” his smile broadened, “it’s what I do.”

“Yeah,” Faith cast a quick look at Willow who seemed to have got over the shock of not having to explain about vampires, “so y’know about the vampires, what about ya team?”

“No,” the smile left Gibbs’ face and he shook his head, “I’ve never told them so we’ll need to keep them out of it.” Gibbs sighed heavily at the thought of lying to his people. “So, anyway like I said before; so, Chief, what pieces and how do they fit?”

“Yeah,” Faith stopped herself from sitting on the edge of Liza’s bed and moved over to join Willow by the door. “There’s been a couple of attacks that were probably vampire related…”

“…and Faith staked one,” Willow added before Faith could mention it.

“Which sorta confirmed your suspicions?” Gibbs asked.

“Yeah,” Faith agreed.

“So what are you going do about it?” Gibbs wanted to know.

“I was sorta thinking that Will an’ me would go an’ take ‘em out,” Faith explained.

“And she totally doesn’t mean take them out, like for a meal or to the movies or something,” Willow added for the sake of clarity.

“Any idea where they ‘live’?” Gibbs queried.

“Old frat house on campus,” Faith replied, “I shoulda realised sooner.”

“Don’t beat y’self up, honey,” Willow turned towards Faith and rested her hand on her shoulder, “you didn’t have all the information until I told you about what’d happened at my college.” Willow looked at Gibbs, “Long story I’ll tell you later.”

“Don’t you think you’re a little over dressed to hunt vampires?” Gibbs gestured at Faith’s figure hugging red dress, “or is that army policy too?”

“Yeah,” Faith agreed, “an’ what about your people?”

“Hey!” Willow raised her hand to speak, “Two birds one stone!”

Both Faith and Gibbs turned to Willow with deeply puzzled looks on their faces.

“Can’t you send them to take photos of the crime scene or something?” Willow asked, “They can take me back to my car then I can go collect Faith an’ me some clothes and meet you back here.” Willow looked hopefully at the two cops, “It shouldn’t take me more than thirty minutes.”

“You think these vampires will stay put long enough?” Gibbs asked.

“Sure,” Willow replied before Faith could open her mouth, “Vamps aren’t much for the plan-age and they won’t want to leave their nest if they think they can hold on to it.”

“Okay,” Faith nodded her head, “sounds like a plan, Gibbs?”

“I’m good,” Gibbs walked to the door, “I’ll tell my people to go check out the crime scene.”

0=0=0=0

**Theta House.**

“What the hell did you think you were doing!?” Toyah demanded, she pushed Rick so hard that he almost stumbled and fell, “Almost killing those two girls when you know there’s a slayer on campus…” not giving Rick a chance to answer Toyah rolled right on, “…where you sired stupid or do you have to practice?”

“Look!” Rick regained his balance and stood his ground, “I’m sick of you telling us who and how much we can eat!”

“Yeah!” Pete agreed from just behind Rick.

“What about you?” Toyah turned to glare at George who was standing on the other side of the un-living room.

“Hey,” George held up his hands in a defensive gesture, “don’t rag on me, I’m with you Toy, I’m in no hurry to get dusted.”

“Look,” Rick growled, “its just one slayer right? We can take her…”

“Are you freaking stupid?” Toyah demanded, “Do you know nothing? I mean, if we killed this one that would just mean another one comes for us…”

“Then we’ll kill her too!” Rick pointed out.

“…and then we kill the next one?” Toyah asked sarcastically, “And the one after that, and what happens when a whole gang of slayers turn up, we kill them too?”

“Hey!” Pete spoke up from his position behind Rick, “Least ways it’d be better than being pussy whipped by you!”

“You wanna be dusted?” Toyah demanded as she pushed Rick out of the way and went for Pete, a stake in her hand, “I can do it right here, right now!”

“Hold it!” George yelled from the other side of the room, “Let’s not do the slayer’s job for her, okay?” His words had the effect of calming everyone down. “Come on guys,” George walked forward to take centre stage, “this has been a good gig, but maybe its time to split up like the Beatles or something.”

“Yeah,” Pete sniggered, “but who’s gonna be Yoko?”

“That’d be the slayer,” Toyah relaxed and lowered her stake, “so that’s it, we’re breaking up the band?”

“Looks like it,” Rick agreed before adding, “irreconcilable artistic differences.”

“Okay,” now that she knew it was all over Toyah lost all her anger, “if that’s the way you want it I’ll take my stuff an’ go, you guys can keep the house.”

“Toy,” George called, “hold up I’ll go with you.”

“Look guys,” Rick realising what he’d done tried to hold out an olive branch, “look its too late for you to go tonight, at least stay a couple of nights ‘til you find a new crib.”

Although Toyah could be a ball-busting bitch at times, mainly over the eating, the band had been good and it had been fun.

“Thanks,” Toyah sighed dejectedly, “I’ll do that, but,” she looked directly at Rick, “don’t bring the slayer down on us before I’ve left, huh?”

0=0=0=0

Pulling up outside Theta house, Faith switched off the car’s engine before turning to look at Gibbs who was sitting in the back seat with Willow, the weapons that Willow had brought from Faith’s room were taking pride of place on the front seat. It had only taken Willow twenty-five minutes to drive back to Faith’s dorm, collect some suitable clothes and weapons and drive back to the hospital. While Faith and Willow had changed into more appropriate attire for vampire slayage, Gibbs had sent his team on a wild goose chase back to the crime scene. The three vampire hunters would now be able to get on with their work without worrying about ‘innocent civilians’. Climbing out of the car, Faith looked up at the dilapidated house and then looked at Gibbs.

“I know how I’m going to dust these vamps,” she pointed out, “What ya goin’ to do?”

Gibbs pulled his Glock pistol from its holster with one hand and a stake from behind his back with the other.

“I find a head shot puts them down long enough for me to stake them,” Gibbs glanced at Willow; in his eyes she didn’t look anymore capable of fighting a vampire than Faith did, but he knew there was something special about Faith so he didn’t worry too much about her. Catching Gibbs look Faith silently agreed, Willow should not get too close to the action.

“Hey, Red,” Faith called, “you bring up the rear, okay?”

“Don’t worry about me, Faithie,” Willow hated being called ‘Red’ so she retaliated by calling Faith, ‘Faithie’ which she knew her girlfriend disliked. “I can deal, y’know?”

“Okay,” Gibbs watched as Faith selected a long, sharp stake from the bag, “how do we get in?”

Gibbs was right, the doors and windows where heavily boarded up, they’d need a chainsaw or something to get in.

“Don’t worry about that,” Faith grinned, “just watch my dust!”

0=0=0=0

**A crime scene nearby.**

After dropping off the cute red head at her car and watching her drive away into the night, Tony had lead the rest of the team into the frat house. He’d paused in the doorway to sample the smell of stale beer and sweaty bodies that brought back so many happy memories from his own college experience. Marching through the house they came to the bedroom at the back of the building where the two officer cadets had been found and presumably attacked. It didn’t take him long to realise that there was something odd going on. It was also obvious to him that the local police had already gone over the scene with a fine tooth comb. Anything they found now would have been contaminated by the police CSU team. He watched as Ziva took photographs and McGee shone a flashlight out of the window in an attempt to see if there were any foot prints in the mud outside.

“Is it just me,” Tony couldn’t keep his doubts to himself, “or does anyone else get the feeling that Gibbs sent us here to keep us out of the way?”

“Yeah,” McGee switched off his flashlight as he turned to face Tony, “it does seem a little odd when the crime scene’s been trampled over like this.”

“And those two women,” Ziva raised the question that had been bugging Tony the most, “who are they…?”

“Well, one we know,” McGee smirked at Tony, “don’t we Tony?”

“Shut-it Probie,” Tony snapped as he self-consciously rubbed his jaw where Faith had hit him.

“Hey I’m just saying, Tony,” McGee had no intention of ‘shutting it’.

“You think they’re…” Ziva began but didn’t get the chance to finish what she was saying because Tony was already heading for the door.

Turning to look at McGee, Ziva shrugged as they both headed off after Tony.

0=0=0=0

Pushing pieces of broken down door out of the way, Faith waited for Willow and Gibbs to catch up with her. Climbing through the Faith shaped hole in the door Gibbs looked as if he was going to say something then thought better of it. Instead he helped Willow to climb over the wreckage.

“Will,” Faith called quietly, “you stay here an’ watch the door, okay.”

“Okay,” Willow replied as she got her mojo on and ready to use on any vamp who tried to leave this way. 

“Gunney,” Faith looked over her shoulder a him, “ya watch my back an’ try to keep up.”

“Hey!” Gibbs complained as he pointed his gun down along the corridor ready for anything that might come out of the dark. “Who put you in charge.”

“Look,” Faith speared him with a look like steel, “hands up everyone here with super-strength?” Faith waved her hand in the air, “That would be me, right? You,” she poked Gibbs in the chest, “watch my back!”

Turning to face the corridor, Faith was just in time to intercept the vampire with her fist. There was a meaty sounding *thud!* as fist met jaw and the vampire was knocked off his feet to land a couple of yards away from Faith. Hardly pausing to hit the floorboards the vamp sprang back to his feet and was on Faith in an instant. There was a short struggle and the vamp exploded into ash that drifted softly to the floor.

“Okay,” Gibbs called quietly, “you’ve made your point.”

Leading the way deeper into the house, Faith found herself in a large room piled high with old furniture and junk of all kinds. Her sensitive ‘super-nose’ also picked out the smell of corruption coming from a dead body, obviously the vamps weren’t fussy about taking the trash out. There were three vamps in the room, one female and two males and they were coming to greet her with big toothy grins on their faces. It took Faith about two minutes to take down the two male vampires, by the time she’d dusted them the female had vanished.

“Did you see where she went?” Faith asked Gibbs; before he was able to reply there was a scream from outside in the corridor followed by the sound of a shot, Faith now knew exactly where the vamp was.

0=0=0=0

The frat house that Gibbs had gone to was only a hundred yards or so along the road from the crime scene. The three NCIS agents hardly had to use any of their detective skills to find it as they saw the car that Gibbs and the two women had driven off in parked on the road outside. Hearing what sounded like a fight, the three agents drew their weapons and moved quickly towards the front door. Finding the door smashed in and half off its hinges, Ziva led the way inside. Seeing a figure in the gloom of the hall way she pointed her pistol at it only to have her eardrums assaulted by a scream of surprise and a high-pitched buzzing sound.

Wincing a little, Ziva recognised the figure as one of the women who’d gone with Gibbs. Relaxing a fraction as the buzzing stopped, she turned at the sound of footsteps coming towards her along the corridor. Gasping at the sight of the woman with the animalistic face and dyed orange hair, Ziva fired and shot her in the middle of the chest. The hit hardly slowed the woman down and she barrelled into Ziva knocking the gun from her hand as she did so. Choking as she found herself being lifted off her feet and held by the throat, Ziva fought frantically to free herself, but it was like punching a concrete wall.

0=0=0=0

Bursting out into the hallway, Faith saw the female vamp holding Officer David by the throat. The vamp had her back against the wall and was holding David in front of her so that Faith would have to go through the agent to get to her. Knowing that if she tried that the vamp would snap the agent’s neck, she slowed down and came to a halt in front of the vamp.

“I want to make a deal!” Toyah called from behind the still weakly struggling body of the female agent; the band was well and truly split up now so she might as well try to save herself.

“Deal?” Faith sneered, “What could ya tell me that could possibly make me wanna deal with you?”

“There’s something way worse than us on campus,” Toyah called from behind her human shield, “you give me your word that you’ll let me go and I’ll tell you what it is, okay?”

“Okay, vamp,” Faith still had to save the agent and if there was something else evil on campus she needed to know about it, “I’ll tell you what, I’m not gonna let you go free, but I will give ya a head start, now spill!”

0=0=0=0


	10. Chapter 10

10.

**Theta House.**

“Okay, vamp,” Faith held Ziva up for a moment before passing her to McGee, “I promise not to kill ya, so tell me what’s the big bad on campus.”

“Ever notice how at the start of a semester a load of girls go missing?” Toyah asked as she eyed the humans around her nervously.

“Well like of course they go missing,” Willow pointed out, “you’re eating them!”

“No,” Toyah shook her head, “we hardly ever eat any of the students…”

“Hardly ever…?” Willow didn’t sound convinced, “…yeah right, who ya tryin’ ta kid?”

“Eat the students?” Tony asked turning slightly green, “You mean in a non-sexual way don’t you?”

“Look,” Toyah tried to explain, “we had a good gig here, whole houses full of succulent freshman just inviting us in, we’d be stupid to go round killing our meal ticket.”

“Gross,” Willow muttered.

“Meal ticket…?” McGee queried.

“Look do you want to hear what I’ve gotta say?” Toyah asked angrily, “If not you might as well stake me now.”

“Don’t tempt me,” Gibbs rumbled.

“Okay,” Faith held her hand up for quiet, “listen up, people.”

“Right,” Toyah took a deep breath, she had a lot to say, “every year at the beginning of the semester you get one or two girls go missing that can’t be explained by them dropping out and going home…”

“Like that Becky girl you told me about,” Willow said to Faith.

“…then around the end of October three girls go missing within a week of each other,” Toyah eyed the humans warily to see what effect this news would have on them, when they didn’t stake her she dropped the bombshell. “Someone’s feeding a demon.”

“Like this is every year?” Willow asked.

“Regular as clockwork,” Toyah informed her, “I’ve been working the campus for fifteen years or there abouts and its happened every year.”

“Any idea who’s doin’ this?” Faith wanted to know.

“Look all I know is its happening,” Toyah turned towards the slayer, “the college authorities never did anything about it so I always thought they had something to do with it. It never bothered me that much so I never looked into it that hard, so, can I go now?”

Turning to look at Willow, Faith shrugged her shoulders she didn’t think she’d get anything more out of the vampire, just as she was about to tell her to go, Gibbs said something.

“So you used the students here as your own personnel food source?” he moved to stand in front of the vamp.

“Yeah,” Toyah shrugged, “why not? Like I say it was a sweet deal and it wasn’t as if we killed that many, maybe one or two a semester…”

“So you just sucked on a few?” Gibbs asked.

“Yeah,” Toyah shrugged, “you gotta problem with that?”

“Yeah,” Gibbs replied straight faced; before Faith could even move he’d raised his pistol and shot the vamp in the head.

The sound of the unexpected shot made everyone cry out as the vamp stumbled back against the wall behind her. Jerking spasmodically the vamp slid down the wall to end up sitting on the floor, stepping forward Gibbs rammed his stake into the vamp’s heart before standing back and watching her turn to ash.

“Freaking hell!” Squeaked Willow as she clung onto Faith’s arm for support, “Like, next time tell us you’re gonna do that!”

“Sorry,” Gibbs glanced towards Willow as he put his gun and stake away.

“B-boss,” Tony stuttered, “did you really just shoot and stab that woman?”

“What woman DiNozzo?” Gibbs looked around for said woman, “I don’t see any bodies lying around do you?”

“B-but, Boss!?” DiNozzo continued to stare at the spot where the vamp had been only moments before.

“You two have a problem?” Gibbs turned his withering stare on Ziva and McGee.

“N-no Boss,” McGee shook his head hard enough to make it fall off.

“What woman?” Ziva asked as she looked Gibbs in the eye and rubbed her throat, “I did not see any woman.”

“Didn’t think you did,” Gibbs nodded, he turned to face Faith and Willow, “I’m going to write this up as an animal attack, no further action required. After all,” Gibbs lips hinted at a very small smile, “the perp’s dead and we could never have brought her to trial anyway.”

“Thanks, Gunney,” Faith slipped her own stake into the waist band of her jeans, “and hey ya saved me from having to dust her…”

“I can’t believe you’re having this discussion!” Tony exclaimed, “You just killed some one and you’re acting like it never happened.”

“Get with the program, Tony,” Ziva snapped as she pushed Tony up against the wall and held him there, “there was no woman, this was an animal attack and anyway you can not kill something that is already dead!”

“I trust I can rely on you to call animal control?” Gibbs asked Faith, “And that other matter…”

”Don’t worry Gibbs,” Faith nodded towards Willow, “we’ll deal.”

“I know you have your own people to help out,” Gibbs started to head towards the door, “but if you need some extra help, well, you know my number.”

“Thanks, Gunney,” Faith called.

“Erm, yeah thanks,” Willow called before turning back to Faith, “what a nice man!”

“Come on people,” Gibbs herded his team out the door, “no investigation needed here.”

“What do you mean, Gibbs,” DiNozzo persisted, “you just can’t go round shooting people then acting like it never happened!”

“Shut up, Tony,” Ziva’s voice drifted in through the broken down door.

“DiNozzo!” Gibbs sounded mightily pissed by now; there was the sound of a hand slapping the back of someone’s head followed by silence.

“You think we’ll have problems with him?” Willow watched the departing NCIS agents as they headed for their vehicles.

“Nah,” Faith shook her head, “Gibbs’ll straighten him out.”

“Cool,” Willow gave a relieved sigh as she turned to face Faith once more, “so, what do we do now?”

“Yeah,” Faith sighed heavily as she glanced at her watch, “it’s nearly midnight, too late to do anything more here, what ya say we go back to my place?”

“What about the body?” Willow frowned.

“I’m not taking him back with us!” Faith explained before she realised what Willow meant, “I’ll come back tomorrow and deal, maybe this place’ll have an unfortunate fire or something.”

The two women headed for the door; climbing out into the night Faith turned and blocked up the doorway to prevent anyone from just wandering in.

“You think that’s gonna be okay?” Willow asked as they headed towards the car.

“To me honest, Willow,” Faith’s arm snaked around her partner’s waist, “I’m too tired to care.”

“Not _too_ tired I hope,” an impish grin spread across Willow’s face.

“Hey,” Faith laughed, “I’m not _that_ tired!”

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s Room.**

“Hadn’t we better hang those up?” Willow asked a she watched Faith hang their dresses over the back of a chair.

“Deal with it tomorrow,” Faith replied as she headed for the bathroom.

“Yeah,” Willow went to stand over the discarded clothes and stroked the material softly, “go out to go dancing, end up staking a vamp…curse of the slayer…”

“Yeah,” Faith reappeared from the bathroom, “what’s all this ‘slayer’ crap?”

“Erm?” Willow turned to face Faith like a five-year-old who’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t, “Nothing!” she added unconvincingly just before throwing herself into Faith’s arms and kissing her.

“Hey!” Faith broke away from Willow’s embrace for a moment, “I thought it was just me who got all hot and itchy after a kill.”

“No,” holding on to Faith’s arm with one hand, Willow started to kick off her shoes, “no, I’ve been know to get, y’know hot and I admit it a little _itchy_ too.”

Willow unbuttoned her jeans and let them fall to her ankles before kicking them off, her pullover and blouse soon joined the growing pile of her and Faith’s clothes on the floor. Soon and only dressed in their underwear, Faith pulled Willow towards her and started to kiss her passionately as they stood in the middle of the room.

“Hmm, erm,” Willow came up for air, “maybe we should switch out the lights and get into bed?”

“Yeah,” Faith agreed as she reluctantly let Willow go and headed for the light switch.

Unclipping her bra and throwing it to join her other clothes, Willow was just in the process of pulling off her panties when she happened to glance out the window.

“AAAGH!” She screamed in surprise at the grinning, gargoyle-like face at the window.

Without thinking she raised her hand to channel the power of her mind at the demonic peeping tom. The grin left the gargoyle’s face as it felt the ladder it was standing on start to move away from the dorm’s wall. The gargoyle’s cry of surprise turned to one of fear as the ladder went past its point of balance and the demon found itself heading towards the ground with increasing speed.

Dressed only in her bra and panties, Faith yanked open the door and sprinted down the corridor towards the stairs at the end of the block. Taking the steps one flight at a time, she soon found herself on the ground floor. Pulling open a door to the outside world, Faith saw the demon lying on the lawn underneath his ladder. Running bare foot across the grass she was just in time to catch the gargoyle as he started to push the ladder off his chest. Ripping the ladder from the gargoyle’s grasp, Faith grabbed him by the front of his sweat shirt and hauled him to his feet, only to punch him and knock him down again.

The demon flew six or eight feet through the air before hitting the ground again. Bouncing twice the gargoyle rolled to a stop and slowly tried to climb back to his feet. Unfortunately he was too slow and Faith’s foot caught him on his butt sending him sprawling across the lawn again.

“FAITH!” Willow’s voice coming from her room’s window, caused Faith to pause in her retribution, “Leave him, Faith, he’s not worth it!”

Looking back up at the dorm, Faith saw lights start to come on in other rooms as curious heads looked out of windows to see what all the fuss was about.

“God-damn-it!” Faith cursed quietly.

Leaving the demon to make his erratic way across the lawn and towards safety, Faith trotted back to the dorm and went inside again. As she headed back to her room she tried to ignore the curious glances she was receiving as people opened their doors to watch her pass.

“Okay people,” Faith called in her ‘no-nonsense, senior NCO’s voice’, “go back to bed, nothing to see here…”

“You’re not standing where I am, honey,” called a female voice from behind Faith.

“…just some stupid frat prank,” Faith ignored the voice as she sighed with relief and closed the door to her room.

“Shower?” Asked a naked Willow Rosenberg as she stood in the doorway to Faith’s bathroom.

“Yeah,” Faith looked down at her muddy feet, “but only if ya scrub my back.”

0=0=0=0

**Sunday morning.**

“So,” Willow stirred her coffee as she and Faith had breakfast in an off campus diner, “what’s the plan, ma’am?”

Faith glanced up from her breakfast and grinned at Willow from under her eyebrows.

“Okay,” Faith paused for half a second, “as I see it we’ve got two problems.” Faith lifted her coffee cup to her lips and sipped, “First I need to go deal with that problem at Theta house right?”

“Check,” Willow gave Faith a mock salute.

“Then while I deal with that you can go over to the library…”

“It’s open on Sunday?” Willow asked her mouth dropping open in wonder.

“I suppose,” Faith hesitated, “if its not you’ll have to use my laptop.”

“Okay,” Willow nodded, “I’m computer-girl, what do you want me to check on?”

“Disappearances, around the start of the school year,” Faith explained, “bodies turning up, how long it’s been going on, that sorta stuff, y’know?”

“Yeah,” Willow shock her head sadly, “usual icky stuff then, I can deal, ma’am.”

Noticing the sad look on Willow’s face, Faith frowned herself.

“Okay, WFC Rosenberg…”

“WFC?” Willow looked up at Faith again.

“Witch First Class,” Faith explained.

“You think I’m ‘first class’?”

“Yeah but don’t let it go to ya head,” Faith smiled before getting serious again, “so what’s up?”

“It’s…” Willow paused as she wondered how much she should say, she hated having to lie to Faith, she hated to have to lie to anyone. “Look, it’s just this business we’re in, you go for a nice weekend with your honey and end up chasing demons and monsters, it’s not fair.”

For a moment, Faith wondered if she should ask Willow about the comment she’d made the previous night about ‘slayer’s luck’. Her cop-trained mind had told her that Willow hadn’t meant to say anything, she’d just let it slip out. Studying the frown on her girlfriend’s face, Faith decided to let it go for now. But one day she’d get to the bottom of whatever Willow was hiding, because she _was_ hiding something and it sounded like it concerned her.

0=0=0=0

**Theta House.**

Looking up and down the street, Faith saw that there was no one around; it was still quite early and the students, not being known as early risers, hadn’t started to emerge from their beds yet. Walking quickly across the overgrown lawn, Faith reached the front door of the old frat house and pushed her way inside without disturbing the smashed up front door too much. Once inside she searched the contents of the sports bag she was carrying for a flash light. After breakfast she’d gone back to her room to pick up a few needful things before sending Willow off in search of data bases.

Clicking on the flashlight, Faith followed its beam into the main room. The body was still where they’d left it the night before her nose told her that. Quickly she checked the body out, she thought she remembered seeing it around campus and then it came to her. This was one of the jokers who’d jumped her as she’d been walking home the other night. This was the guy she’d tied to the lamppost, Kyle somebody.

“God-damn-it,” Faith cursed herself before assuaging any guilt she might feel at being slightly responsible for his death by telling herself that it was his fault for trying to attack young women in the dark.

Who knew what he’d done in the past or what he planned to do in the future. Feeling marginally less guilty, Faith took his wallet from his pocket and checked through it. Removing any cash and the credit card she found to make it look like a robbery gone bad, Faith dropped the wallet near him.

Although she was going to burn the place down, there was no guarantee that Kyle’s body would be consumed by the blaze. Anyway the guy must have family somewhere and she wanted to give them closure, she didn’t want to leave them being tortured by not knowing what had happened to their boy. Getting up from the body, Faith moved around the house checking the rooms. The vamps had obviously lived there for years, the place was full of junk, stuff that the vamps had picked up over the years, some of it was pretty valuable particularly the guitars and the drum kit she found.

Satisfied that there were no more bodies or any prisoners locked in the cellar, Faith headed towards the back of the house. Forcing the kitchen door open she looked out into the backyard. It was even more overgrown than the front. Smiling to herself Faith searched through her bag again, finding what she wanted she tossed the phosphorous grenade up into the air before catching it and grasping the pin with her finger. Keeping her other hand firmly around the canister and holding down the firing lever, she glanced around one last time making sure no one was watching.

Tossing the grenade into the building behind her, Faith heard the firing lever fly off the grenade and hit the floorboards. Halfway towards the fence at the back of the yard, Faith heard the pop-hiss of the grenade going off, glancing over her shoulder as she grabbed the top of the fence in her hands, she saw white smoke start to billow from the back door. Very soon the phosphorous would start to burn down the house and there’d be nothing much left to say what had happened there…except perhaps the remains of the grenade.

“God-damn-it!” Faith cursed as she vaulted over the fence, there was nothing she could do about it now, just be more careful in future.

With luck the police and fire department would think that whoever had been using the place had stolen or found the grenade and let it off by mistake. Crouching in the shelter of some bushes behind Theta house, Faith listened to the building start to burn. Standing up she walked slowly back out onto the road as if she was just out on an early morning stroll. Pulling her cellphone form her pocket she dialled 911 and told the operator to get a fire truck around to Theta house before hanging up and switching off her phone. More or less pleased with her mornings work, Faith headed back to her room; she could dump her stuff before going to the library to find out what Willow had discovered if she wasn’t already back at the room.

0=0=0=0


	11. Chapter 11

11.

**Delta House, Sunday.**

“Bluto!” Otter cried on emerging from his room and seeing his frat brother in the corridor, “What happened to you?”

“Bad night,” the short, fat, degenerate demon replied.

“Tell me more,” Otter put a brotherly arm around Bluto’s shoulder and led him down to the living room, “this looks serious. Hey,” Otter gave his brother demon a suspicious look, “you’ve not been hiding in girl’s closets again, have you?”

“No!” Bluto cried innocently, “I was just watching these two girl freshmen getting it on…”

“And?” Otter interrupted suspecting there was more to it than that.

“‘And’, nothing!” Bluto looked hurt that his brother demon would think he’d gone against the fraternity’s rules, “Like I say I was watching through the window, you know I’d never break the rules, not after what happened last time.”

“Okay, I’ll believe you,” Otter sat down on a battered old couch and waited for Bluto to continue his story, “So you were watching these two girls making out…”

“Yeah, right,” Bluto continued, “they were on the second floor so I had to use a ladder.” Bluto paused for a moment as he remembered the scene.

“So?” Otter prompted when it looked like Bluto was getting lost in his memories.

“What!? Right! Yeah, like I say I was only watching when one of them saw me,” Bluto shook his head in sorrow, “next thing I know I’m flying through the air. Then I land on the grass and one of them’s already waiting for me and starts to beat the crap outta me!” Bluto did in deed have a fine collection of cuts and bruises, “Eventually I broke free and ran for it!”

“You mean one of these women managed to get downstairs before you’d actually landed?” Otter asked his eyes narrowing.

“Yeah,” now that he thought about it, Bluto did think this was slightly weird.

“Describe this woman,” Otter demanded, “the one that beat the crap out of you, I mean.”

Bluto gave a quick and fairly accurate description of Faith.

“Oh-my-gods!” Otter exclaimed as a faraway look came over his face, “I love that woman.”

“You what!?” Bluto looked both hurt and surprised.

“Bluto,” Otter grinned as he imagined being beaten up by the desirable body of Faith Lehane, “you lucky bastard!”

“Lucky bastard!?” Bluto was in fact a bastard but he certainly didn’t feel lucky.

“You were beaten up by the woman I love!” Otter sighed longingly before getting up and heading on out for the cafeteria with Bluto following closely behind him.

0=0=0=0

**College Cafeteria, Sunday lunchtime.**

Having paid for their meals, Faith and Willow found a quiet table in the corner of the dining hall and sat down.

“Oh,” Willow sighed wistfully, “this so reminds me of my days at UC Sunnydale.”

“You enjoyed ya college days, right?” Faith smiled indulgently, as far as she knew she’d never had the chance to go to college until now.

“Yeah,” Willow gazed off into the middle distance as she remembered all the good times she’d had; her face fell as she then started to remember all the bad stuff that had happened; “apart from the vampires, monsters, evil-bitch-woman-mad-scientists, hell-gods and robots.”

“Robots?” Faith paused her fork halfway to her mouth.

“Yeah,” Willow nodded as she ate, “remind me to tell you about it someday.”

“Right-on,” Faith nodded almost glad she couldn’t remember what had happened to her in Sunnydale, “so, what did ya find out about this demon?”

“Oh, yeah,” Willow spent a moment or two thinking as she ate, “actually it all reminds me of something that happened while I was at school.”

“Uh-huh,” Faith nodded, although she regretted not being able to remember such minor milestones in her life like her entire school career, she also felt glad that she hadn’t experienced Willow’s school life.

“Uh-huh,” Willow agreed, “when I was still a freshman we found out that some girls had been going missing every October for, like years.”

“Like here, right?” pushed her plate to one side and waited for Willow to go on.

“Yeah,” Willow finished her meal and gave Faith her full attention, “from what I managed to find out, by the way the college library isn’t open on Sunday.” Willow sipped her soft drink before explaining further. “Up until about ten years ago it was like at High School, three girls going missing every October.”

“I’m guessing it changed,” Faith hinted.

“Got it,” Willow gave her girlfriend a small smile, “starting in about two-thousand you got more girls vanishing at the start of each new school year, then three around the last week in October.”

“Now many more girls?” Faith wanted to know.

“The most I’ve found vanish in a single year is four,” Willow shrugged, “mostly its one or two.”

“So this has been going on for seven years or so,” Faith pointed out as her face darkened, “and no one noticed?”

“Hey, baby!” Willow reached across the table and held onto one of Faith’s hands, “don’t get mad. Look, best I can tell everyone thought these girls just dropped out. By the time anyone thought that something bad had happened to them it just looked as if they’d run off or something.”

“Crap!” Faith cursed under her breath, “Stuff like this really makes me mad! I mean how could someone not notice that their daughter has vanished?”

“Quite easily, sweetheart,” Willow replied sadly, “most of the ones that went missing lived in the Midwest or on the west coast. It’d be a week or two before their parents even suspected that something was wrong.”

“God-damn-it!” Faith knew what it must be like to be a non-person, someone that no one even knew existed; one of the reasons she loved being in the army was that their were people that cared whether you lived or died, people who’d notice if one day she just wasn’t there any more…and of course there was Willow. “Sorry,” Faith smiled sheepishly at her girlfriend, “I get, y’know…”

“Yeah,” Willow squeezed Faith’s hand comfortingly, “I think I do.”

“So what’s happening to these girls once they vanish?” Faith suspected she knew but she wanted her suspicions confirmed.

“Sounds like they’re being sacrificed to some hell-being,” Willow replied sadly.

“So what is it?” Faith looked as if she was about ready to go out and kill something right now, “How do I kill it and where is it?”

“Sounds like it could be a demon called Machida,” Willow explained, “As for killing it I thought Buffy had, but it looks like it didn’t take.”

“Mrs Finn killed this thing already?” Faith started making plans to have her Assault Shotgun and a few hundred rounds sent down from Fort Drum.

“Well,” Willow didn’t look so sure, “she was only sixteen at the time so she wasn’t quite as proficient with the demon slayage as she is now,” Willow shrugged, “as I remember it she cut off his tail.”

“Tail?” Faith queried.

“Machida is a big snake-like demon,” Willow shivered as she remembered the monster, “she sliced off its tail, maybe it grew back?”

“Like a worm or something?” Faith’s eyes drifted of across the dinning room, what she saw didn’t make her happy.

“What’s wrong, Faith?” Willow turned to see what was making Faith look so pissed.

“It’s that asshole Neidermyer,” Faith gestured to where Neidermyer and half a dozen of his buddies were sitting at a table on the other side of the hall. “I never authorised him to…”

“This is an army thing, isn’t it?” Willow frowned; all she could see was half a dozen guys in smart uniforms sitting at a table eating their lunch.

“I am so going to roast his ass over a fire,” Faith snarled.

“Hey sweetie,” Willow held on to Faith’s hand tightly, “no ass roasting, okay?”

“Look,” Faith speared Willow with a hard stare that made the redhead loosen her grip and sit back in surprise, “those must be Neidermyer’s ‘Special Forces’ goons, something I haven’t authorised. I also said there was no training this weekend, so unless he’s got an extremely good reason to be dressed up like that he’s in deep crap.”

Just for a moment Willow felt intensely proud that she had a girlfriend who ‘authorised’ things and could put people in ‘deep crap’. However, the sound of Faith’s teeth grinding together snapped her back to the here and now.

“Hey, honey,” Willow said soothingly, “can we leave the ass roasting and deep crapping ‘til later? Demon’s so much more important.”

“Hey look!” Faith suddenly felt angry at Willow, something she’d never done before, “I’m Army, I have a job to do and that asshole,” Faith jerked her head at Neidermyer, “is dissing my authority, okay?”

“Okay,” Willow replied in a very small voice, the last time she’d seen Faith act like this was a long time ago when she’d worked for Mayor Wilkins.

“Sorry,” Faith let out a long slow breath, “I’m sorry I snapped at ya like that…”

“Okay, sweetie,” Willow pacified her girlfriend, “you give Neidermyer an extra hot ass roasting for me, huh? But do it tomorrow, okay?”

“Tomorrow, right,” Faith grinned hopefully at Willow, trusting that she hadn’t ruined their relationship with her outburst. “Okay demons…!”

The word demon was hardly out of Faith’s mouth when the food began to fly across the hall.

“FOOD FIGHT!” Someone yelled as the missiles thickened in their intensity.

“Ewww!” Willow ducked under the table, “This never happened at UC Sunnydale!”

“Time to leave,” Faith grabbed Willow’s hand and pulled her towards a fire exit.

Standing outside in the autumn sunshine, Willow gave Faith a major hugging. They’d both escaped being hit by any of the flying food and anyway, Willow wanted to confirm to herself and Faith that she-they were still an item after their little falling out.

“Hey,” Faith whispered into Willow hair, “people are watching…”

“Let them,” came Willow’s muffled answer.

“Erm, Willow,” Faith was starting to feel uncomfortable, “don’t ask, don’t tell? This is like a major ‘tell’!”

“Oh god!” Willow jumped away from Faith as if she’d become red-hot, “I’m so sorry…!”

“Hey, don’t sweat-it,” Faith smiled reassuringly once Willow had let go of her, “lets go back to my room. We can lock the door and close the shades, then we can do whatever we want.”

“Coool!” Willow agreed eagerly, “An’ I can tell you more about Machida.”

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s Room.**

“So, Machida?” Faith sat on the edge of her bed and kicked off her shoes before starting to take off her jeans.

“Yeah!” Willow called from the bathroom, they’d found that she’d picked up some fallout from the food fight and she was getting artificial cream out of her hair. “He’s a demon that gives his worshippers success in their chosen field. So,” Willow appeared in the door to the bathroom already naked, “our likely demon worshippers are people who have more success than they really deserve.”

“Right,” Faith breathed as her eyes travelled up and down Willow’s body, “success, okay.”

“Here,” Willow walked across the room to kneel next to Faith on the bed, “let me help you with that,” she pulled Faith’s T-shirt over her head and then unclipped her bra, “yeah,” Willow gazed into Faith’s eyes as their lips got closer and closer, “totally…” Willow kissed Faith softly on the mouth, “…undeserved…” she started to push Faith onto her back until she lay on top of her; she slipped her hand inside Faith’s panties, “…success!”

*KNOCK! KNOCK!*

The sound of someone banging on the door froze both women in place for a moment.

“God-damn-it!” Faith snapped.

“Ignore it,” Willow advised, “they’ll go away if…”

She was interrupted by another round of knocking.

“Look,” Faith easily pushed Willow from on top of her, “Ya better hide in the bathroom, I’ll deal with this.”

With an ill grace, Willow jumped to her feet and headed for the bathroom. Kicking her discarded clothes under the bed, Faith grabbed her robe, put it on and headed for the door. Yanking it open she glared at the two guys standing outside her room.

“What do you wan…” Faith began but was cut short as the two students bulled their way into her room and slammed the door behind them. “Hey,” Faith began belligerently, “if you’ve come for a good ass kicking you’ve come to the right place!”

“What did you do with Kyle?” demanded Fred Pippin angrily.

“Who?” Faith was a little taken aback for a second until she remembered the body lying on the floor in Theta house.

“Yeah,” Frank Smith joined in, “made him ‘disappear’? Send him to Guantanamo or something?”

“What the hell?” Faith was majorly confused.

“We know all about you… _Ms Lehane_ ,” Fred sneered.

“You do?” Faith really doubted that they did but she’d wait and see where this was going before she kicked their asses clear off the planet.

“Yeah!” it was obviously Franks turn to get into her face, “You an’ that _girlfriend_ of yours,” the youth scoffed, “bet you don’t want the army finding out about her…”

Faith would in fact prefer that the army as a whole did not find out about her relationship with Willow; however, she did suspect that the part of the army she was involved with already knew and didn’t really care that much.

“…Yeah,” it was Fred’s turn again, “coming around here trampling on our democratic right to protest the war!”

“Ya what?” Faith had totally lost what these two dick-wads were talking about, it was time for them to leave.

“Look, asshole…” Faith was interrupted by the sound of the bathroom door banging open; glancing to her left she saw Willow float into the room.

Screaming in fear, Fred and Frank clutched hold of each other as Willow floated across the room to hover in front of them. Her hair writhed around her head like it was alive and blue magical sparks flashed from finger to finger and occasionally grounding themselves on the floor.

“FORGET!” Willow said in a voice like doom, she pointed at the door with a finger that flickered with blue magical energy, “BEGONE!”

The door slowly opened as the two young men turned and as if in some sort of waking dream walked out of the door which slammed behind them.

“There,” once again Willow was her normal self and looked incredibly pleased with herself, “I don’t think they’ll be bothering us again.”

“WOW!” Faith looked at Willow more than a little stunned, she only half believed in all the magic stuff that Willow talked about. But that was before, now she was a confirmed convert.

“Hey it was nothing,” Willow fell onto the bed and let herself bounce on the mattress as she grinned impishly up at Faith, “all smoke and mirrors.”

“So,” Faith took the opportunity to shed her robe and panties before getting on the bed next to Willow, “what did you do to them?”

“Oh nothing much,” Willow replied as she lay back on the bed, “you won’t have any more problems with them and they’ll have a sorta attitude change.”

“They will?” Faith brought her lips into kissing range of Willow’s, “You’re so hot, ya know that right?”

“But of course!” Willow giggled before Faith made her giggles turn to moans.

0=0=0=0

**Delta House.**

“Well, that went alright,” Bluto called happily as he and Otter returned to the frat house.

“Yeah,” Otter agreed with a wistful smile, “there’s nothing like a good food fight to get the blood pumping.”

“Hey,” sniggered Bluto, “did ya see Neidermyer fall flat on his ass!?”

“Always a bonus,” Otter concurred, “talking of Neidermyer…”

“You mean tonight?” Bluto led the way into the living room and threw himself into an old armchair.

“You going ahead with the ‘horse in the Dean’s office’ scenario?” Otter wanted to know.

“Sure,” Bluto nodded his head enthusiastically, “we’re using Neidermyer’s horse.”

“Cool,” Otter smiled as he nodded his head, “who are you taking?”

“D-Day, myself and I thought Dorfman as the human,” Bluto explained.

“You sure,” Otter frowned, “Dorfman?”

“Yeah why not?” Bluto shrugged, “he’s human…” Bluto gave his friend a worried look. “…he is human, isn’t he?”

“Far as I know,” Otter replied, “just be careful alright? Don’t get caught.”

“Us get caught?” Bluto laughed derisively, “Never gonna happen!”

0=0=0=0

**Faber Campus.**

“I’ve been thinking,” Frank Smith told his friend Fred as they walked along between the dormitory blocks seemingly none the worse for their scrape with the world of the supernatural.

“Thinking?” Fred laughed, “You? That would be a first.”

“No seriously,” Frank persisted, “we both want the war to end right?”

“Right,” agreed Fred.

“Right, so maybe we should help make it end,” Frank continued.

“I thought we were,” Fred replied slightly confused where his friend’s thoughts were leading him.

“No we need to do something more positive than just talk about it,” Frank stopped and pulled his friend to a halt.

“More positive than going on demonstrations?” Fred asked slowly.

“Yeah,” Frank nodded.

“What have you got in mind?” Fred wanted to know.

“I’m going to join the Army or the National Guard or something,” Frank announced, “we need to do something to help, y’know?”

“But we’re pacifists,” Fred pointed out the flaw in his friend's plan.

“Then we’ll join as Medics or something,” Frank shrugged he really didn’t know how the military dealt with such things.

“I know,” Fred smiled, “we could ask that Ms Lehane, she’s army she should be able to help.”

“Yeah,” agreed Frank as they continued to walk on down the road, she seemed cool, “we’ll ask her.”

0=0=0=0


	12. Chapter 12

12.

**Faber College Campus.**

“Brother Bluto! Brother D-Day!” cried Kent Dorfman as he saw his two fraternity brothers approach him; Dorfman (or Flounder as his frat brothers had now named him) had just spent an afternoon in Richmond and was returning to his dorm.

“Brother Flounder!” Bluto smiled as he fell in beside Flounder and put a brotherly arm around his shoulder.

“How much do you hate Neidermyer?” D-Day asked as he fell into step next to Flounder, he looked over the head of the young human and smiled evilly at his demonic buddy.

“Well…” Flounder hesitated; Neidermyer was a bully and he’d been picking on him since the beginning of the semester.

Although things weren’t that bad when that nice Chief Lehane was about, but she couldn’t be around all the time and Neidermyer seemed to always be there when Chief Lehane wasn’t.

“Come-on Flounder,” Bluto tempted the young man, “you must really hate him the way he treats you.”

“…yeah!” Flounder replied eventually, “Yeah I hate him!”

“How much do you hate him?” D-Day asked.

“Weeeell…” Flounder hesitated again.

“Do you hate him enough to do something about it?” Bluto wanted to know.

“For the honour of the frat,” D-Day pointed out before Flounder had thought of an answer.

“Weeell…” Flounder was still unsure of himself but if it was for the honour of the frat, “Okay, if it’s for the honour of the frat I suppose I do hate him enough to do something.”

“That’s my boy!” Bluto smiled as he started to steer Flounder towards the college stables. 

“Y’know,” D-Day said in a fatherly way, “in Delta House we have a saying…”

“We do?” Flounder tried to swallow the big lump that had suddenly appeared in throat, “What is it?”

“Don’t get mad,” D-Day informed him.

“Get even,” Bluto added.

0=0=0=0

**Lovers Lane, overlooking Richmond.**

A line of cars swayed gently from side to side as the couples within got to ‘know’ each other better. Below the lights of Richmond stretched out in front of them like some sort of fairy kingdom. Soft romantic music came from the radio of a little yellow sports car parked at the end of the line of more modest but roomier cars. In the sports car a blonde girl sat with her head on her boyfriends shoulder and her hand in his lap.

“Oh Greg,” Mandy sighed as she gazed up into the night sky, “look, it’s a shooting star. Let’s make a wish.”

Sitting behind a tree on the other side of the track a Vengeance Demon put down the magazine she’d been reading (it’d been a slow night) and listened hopefully at the mention of the word ‘wish’.

“Star light,” began Mandy, “star bright…”

“Hey, wait a minute,” Greg looked up into the night sky, “That’s not a star, it’s moving way too fast. It’s probably a 747, those babies really can move!”

Mandy tried to restore the romantic mood by kissing Greg on the cheek, he didn’t seem to notice. In the bushes behind the car the Vengeance Demon got to her feet and looked around the trunk of the tree she’d been sitting behind. Smiling to herself she hoped she could get really inventive when this girl called for vengeance on her lover. 

Sighing Mandy looked down at Greg’s lap, “Greg, is anything happening yet?” Mandy frowned, “My arms getting tired.”

“I’m sorry Mandy,” Greg apologised, “It’s that thing with the Deltas, it has me a little distracted.” The Dean had enlisted Omega’s help in trying to get the Deltas thrown off campus, so far they’d not got any new evidence, “God knows how they’ve molested women…you know the two girls who were attacked last night?” Mandy nodded her head in time with her arm movements, “I bet those Delta’s had something to do with it.”

In the bushes the Vengeance Demon sighed; she looked at her watch, if something didn’t happen pretty damn soon she was going down to one of the bars in town to see what trade she could pick up there.

“Anything?” Mandy asked as she looked down at the limp member in her hand.

“Erm?” Greg glanced at his girlfriend, “Maybe a little faster…yeah?”

“How’s that?” Mandy started to move her hand faster.

The vengeance demon smiled to herself, maybe she wouldn’t go just yet. The girl was bound to see through this guy any second and when she did…boy, would she have some fun!

“Yes!” Greg smiled reassuringly at Mandy, “That’s great,” unfortunately Greg’s new found excitement didn’t last long, “That Eric Stratton’s lucky he’s not in jail.”

“I’ll say,” Mandy sighed heavily, after a little sign of life nothing seemed to be happening no matter how fast she ‘pumped’.

“What?” Greg looked down at Mandy, “You’ll say what?”

The demon stuffed her fingers in her mouth to prevent herself from giggling out loud in her excitement, any moment now the girl would be out of the car, slamming the door and storming off. That would be the point she’d move in and…WHAM-OH! 

“I’ll say what?” by now Mandy had given up all thoughts of getting anything out of Greg tonight.

“You said, ‘I’ll say’, when I said, ‘he should be in jail’.” Greg explained, “I’m trying to figure…”

“Darn it Greg!” Mandy snapped.

Here we go, chortled the demon as she started to move out from her hiding place.

“If you’re not even going to try,” Mandy said harshly, “I’m going to stop!” sitting back in her seat she removed her latex gloves, “Now drive me home please.”

“You what?” gasped the demon as she watched the tail-lights of the couple’s car disappear down the track, “Hey!” she called after the car, “What the freaking hell’s wrong with you woman?”

Sometimes she just didn’t know why she bothered, cursing under her breath and taking a wild kick at a stone on the track, the demon made her way back to her hiding place, picked up her magazine and disappeared in a cloud of bad tempered smoke.

0=0=0=0

**Faber College Campus.**

Running across the lawn in front of the admin block, Bluto slipped on a pile of wet leaves and fell. Sliding to a halt he looked around checking to see if anyone had noticed his fall. At this time of night the campus by ‘administration’ was deserted, the college police wouldn’t be around for another hour and all the students were safely in their dorms or frat houses. Jumping to his feet, Bluto made his way over to the steps in front of the admin block. Again he stopped to check the area for anyone who might have seen him, once again he saw nothing. Running half way up the steps he paused to wave for his frat brothers to come out of hiding.

Actually stealing Neidermyer’s horse had been simplicity itself. The stables were unguarded and weren’t even locked. All they’d had to do was to wait for the campus police to make their rounds and then move in and take the horse. The horse, a large, white, vicious creature, had proven surprisingly docile as D-Day and Flounder had led it through the campus to the admin block.

Leading the horse up the stairs, D-Day paused as Bluto easily picked the lock and Flounder brought up the rear. Once inside the building they led the horse down carpeted corridors and up the wide main stair case. Next there were more corridors to navigate in the dark until they came to the Dean’s office. Once again the lock on the door came undone under Bluto’s hand. Pushing the door open, Bluto stood back to let D-Day, the horse and Flounder pass.

Switching on the office lights the two demons and the overweight human led the horse into the Dean’s office. Letting go of the horse’s bridal the three frat brothers rushed for the door as the horse tried to follow them. Moving faster than the horse they made it through the door and out into the outer office before the horse knew it was trapped. The three young men leaned against the Dean’s secretary’s desk and congratulated each other on a night's work well done.

“Whew!” Flounder gasped, “He’s in there! Oh-boy is this great!?”

Bluto and D-Day didn’t say anything, they just looked at Flounder and smiled; D-Day held out an automatic pistol to Flounder.

“Now finish it, Flounder,” D-Day ordered him menacingly.

“Are you kidding!?” despite himself Flounder took the weapon from D-Day’s hand, “I’ve never shot anything before in my life.”

“I thought you hated Neidermyer’s guts?” Bluto demanded.

“I do…” Flounder replied nervously.

“What about that horse?” D-Day asked, “Is there anything in the world you hate as much as that horse?”

Flounder shook his head his eyes wide with fear.

“Get it over with,” Bluto told him.

D-Day took the pistol from Flounder’s limp hand and cocked it before handing it back, Bluto squeezed Flounder’s shoulder encouragingly as Flounder stared at the weapon in his hand. Reluctantly, Flounder stood up and still staring at the gun walked slowly towards the door to the Dean’s office. Standing next to each other Bluto and D-Day turned to face each other and grinned.

“Just blanks, right?” Bluto asked; they might be demons but they weren’t evil…well not much.

“Just blanks,” D-Day replied with a firm nod.

Sliding into the Dean’s office, Flounder found himself confronted by a snorting, neighing, annoyed horse. The creature started to rear up as Flounder tried to aim the pistol and steal himself to shoot the white monster. The horse bared its teeth as Flounder cowered in the corner of the office waving the gun around ineffectually. Pointing the weapon at the horse’s head he realised that he couldn’t bring himself to shoot the defenceless creature however much he hated it and Neidermyer. Pointing the gun at the ceiling, Flounder pulled the trigger.

Outside in the outer office, Bluto and D-Day where laughing silently as they imagined Flounder trying to shoot the horse. They heard the shot and grinned so hard at each other that their faces almost split in two. However, the shot was quickly followed by the unmistakable sound of a horse falling down dead. In the silence that followed the two demons stared at each other with horror filled eyes. Rushing to the door they opened it to find Flounder standing over a dead horse with the gun in his hand.

“Holy shit!” Gasped Bluto.

“There were blanks in that gun,” D-Day told the universe, he snatched the weapon from Flounder’s numbed hand and examined it.

“I didn’t even point the gun at him!” Flounder explained trying out his alibi for his up and coming court case.

“Holy shit!” Bluto repeated, it seemed it was the only thing he could say just at the moment.

“There _are_ blanks in the gun!” D-Day exclaimed.

“Maybe he had a heart attack,” Flounder tried ‘alibi mark two’ out on his buddies.

“Holy shit!!!” Bluto repeated unhelpfully.

Screaming the two demons and the one human ran from the Dean’s office. They didn’t stop running until they made it back to Delta House.

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s Room.**

Sitting up in bed, Faith listened very carefully.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Willow asked sleepily from the pillow next to Faith’s.

“I’m sure I just heard a shot,” Faith frowned down at her lover.

“Like a gun shot?” Willow asked as she sat up, the sheets falling aside to expose her breasts.

“Yeah,” Faith nodded as she considered getting out of bed and looking out the window.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Willow replied.

“Super-ears,” Faith explained gesturing to her ear.

“Yeah,” Willow smiled, “they are cute, ‘though I wouldn’t call them ‘super’,” sniggering quietly Willow received an extra hard frown from Faith which was met, in turn, by a frown from the witch, “Lighten up will ya,” Willow pouted, “it’s probably nothing, students playing with fire crackers or something.”

“Yeah,” Faith relaxed and lay back on her pillow, she glanced at the grumpy witch beside her, “ya probably right,” Faith sighed, “I’m sorry…”

“No I’m sorry,” Willow rolled onto her side and looked up into Faith’s eyes.

“We seem to have spent a lot of time saying sorry to each other this weekend,” Faith pointed out.

“That’s coz we’re not used to each other yet,” Willow pointed out, “if we could spend more time together and we didn’t have to worry about people seeing us hold hands an’ such…”

“I’m not leaving the army,” Faith replied trying to keep any anger from her voice and more or less succeeding.

“I know sweetie but…” Willow found she didn’t know what to say or suggest; she knew Faith didn’t want to leave the military and she wasn’t stupid enough to start giving her ultimatums.

“But…?” Faith asked.

“But nothing,” Willow reached out and took one of Faith’s hands in her own, “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to…”

“But you’d like me to leave the army?” Faith asked.

“I won’t lie to you Sweetie,” Willow moved closer and rested her head on Faith’s breast, “I’d love it if you left. Every time I think of you going off to fight somewhere it scares me so much, but I know that’s what you want so…”

“So?” Faith worked her way down the bed a little and gathered Willow’s body to her own.

“Well,” Willow sighed, “its what makes you, you and if you didn’t want to do all that fighty stuff you wouldn’t be you and I don’t suppose I’d love you like I do because you’d be different…you know what I mean?”

“I think so,” Faith laughed quietly, “but you’re right. I don’t want to leave the army, not yet. Maybe one day when I don’t have this feeling of a job left undone, y’know?”

“I know,” Willow replied sadly.

“So,” Faith had decided it was time to change the subject, “you were saying about this snake Machida…”

“Hey!” Willow laughed, “That was like hours ago!”

“Yeah, but we sorta got distracted,” Faith smiled to herself; they sure had got distracted, making up for months of being apart while she’d been doing her Ranger training. “Machida,” Faith repeated sternly, “focus, Rosenberg.”

“Yes Ma’am,” Willow replied with mock solemnity before slipping into lecture mode. “Okay, Machida, like I say he gives his worshippers…no that’s the wrong word,” Willow thought for half a second, “Followers would be a better word,” looking up at Faith, Willow saw her frown down at her, “Okay just the facts ma’am…In return for a yearly sacrifice of three ‘virgins’,” Willow felt the need to explain, “They don’t have to be actual ‘virgins’ just young attractive women, okay?”

“Got it,” Faith nodded.

“Right so every year he gets his three ‘virgins’,” Willow continued with her explanation, “then he showers his followers with good fortune…”

“Like?” 

“Oh, y’know,” Willow paused for a moment, “money, fast cars, yachts more virgins. So all we need to do is follow the money.”

“I think I know where that trail will lead,” Faith said slowly.

“Where’s that?”

“Omega House,” Faith explained, “I’ll need to check on some stuff first but I’m pretty sure that Omega are the demon worshippers,” Faith paused as she thought of something. “What does this Machida guy do with these girls?”

“When Buffy took him down at school,” Willow replied, “the police found loads of bones in the tunnels under the frat house.”

“So this isn’t a forced marriage thing or anything like that,” Faith said softly, “these girls die and the worshippers know this, right?”

“Yep,” Willow agreed with a nod.

“So you’re not going to complain if one or two of them get,” Faith grinned like a shark, “y’know, ‘hurt’ when I take them down.”

“Erm,” Willow thought about this for a moment, “no I don’t mind, but I’d like to be near when you take them down.”

“Frightened I’ll go too far?” Faith wanted to know.

“No its not that,” Willow examined her motives, “I just want to be around so I can make sure that this time he’s gone for good.”

“So, ya saying Mrs F did a sloppy job last time?” Faith smirked.

“No!” Willow pinched Faith’s thigh extracting a high pitched squeak from her partner.

“You’ll pay for that!” Faith warned jokingly.

“No,” Willow settled down unconcerned by Faith’s threats, “Buffy was young and inexperienced and I hadn’t even thought of learning _The Craft_ yet. I get the feeling that this is the sort of demon you can’t kill on a permanent basis just using physical weapons.”

“Trust me,” Faith pulled Willow closer, “I’m going to get real physical with the sucker.”

“Hey,” Willow turned her head so that she could kiss Faith’s nipple, “how about getting physical with me, huh?”

0=0=0=0


	13. Chapter 13

13.

**Campus Gymnasium, Monday Afternoon.**

“…okay, people,” Faith stood with her hands on hips as she surveyed the panting cadets, “next time I’ll show you what to do if someone comes after ya with a banana!”

There was a ripple of polite laughter from those cadets who weren’t completely out of breath; it'd been a particularly tough training session.

“One last thing before you go an’ shower,” Faith continued, “ladies I want you to meet me in classroom B3 at seventeen-hundred, and Mr Neidermyer I want to see ya now. The rest of you are dismissed…GO!”

Watching with something close to parental pride as the cadets sprinted for the locker rooms; Faith had to admit that her cadets were good guys and girls…for the most part. Turning her head slightly she let her gaze fall on Neidermyer, she had to stop herself from simply breaking the jerk's neck every time she saw him. He was, no doubt, mixed up in all his fraternities’ dealings with this Machida demon. If what Willow had said was true (and Faith had no reason to doubt her), Neidermyer was implicated in the murder of at least one girl, probably more. The man in question slouched about four yards away from Faith, he obviously expected her to come to him, if he did he was going to be disappointed.

“Mr Neidermyer,” Faith called, she pointed to a spot on the gymnasium floor about two feet in front of her. “Front and centre.”

Reluctantly, Neidermyer walked with insolent slowness over to where Faith stood. Smiling knowingly, Faith decided that this asshole was going to get shot while resisting arrest when the time came. It wouldn’t be fatal because Faith wanted him to spend a nice long time in a prison.

“Stand properly at attention,” Faith ordered as she looked up into his face, once she was satisfied with his posture, Faith started to walk around him slowly. “At Sunday lunch I saw ya in the cafeteria with some of ya buddies in uniform. Why was that?”

Turning his head to look a Faith, Neidermyer was just about to say something when Faith beat him to it.

“Eyes front, mister!” Faith snapped with ill concealed menace.

“Divine service,” Neidermyer replied succinctly.

“Divine service, what?” Faith prompted as she stood behind the tall cadet.

“Ma’am!” Neidermyer added.

“An’ don’t you forget it,” Faith was now standing in front of Neidermyer again. “Those people with ya, who were they?”

“Special Duties Squad…” Neidermyer hesitated before adding, “…ma’am.”

“Special Duties Squad, huh?” Faith mused as she started another circumnavigation of Neidermyer, “So what do they do?” 

Faith actually had her suspicions of what these guys did, she could almost guarantee what they did. It probably had something to do with kidnapping girls.

“Special parades and activities, ma’am,” Neidermyer replied this time sounding like he should when talking to a superior.

“Special actives, huh?” Faith stopped behind Neidermyer again, “Far be it from me to interfere with a person’s right to practice his or her religion, but…” Faith paused for just a little too long so as to make Neidermyer feel more nervous than he was already. “…but, there is such a thing as separation of church an’ state an’ ya going to church with ya buddies in uniform might give people the wrong idea.” Faith stepped around Neidermyer to where he could see her again. “In future you check with me before going on parade in uniform, next time I suggest you go in civvies.” An evil thought popped into Faith’s mind, “Now seeing how ya friends like to parade so much. You an’ them will parade outside Potter Hall at nineteen-thirty-hours every night in ya Class B’s for the rest of the week. In foul weather you can parade in the lobby. You will wait for me to come down an’ inspect you, understand?”

Just for a moment it looked as if Neidermyer was going to argue, but he obviously thought better of it and just said, “Yes ma’am!”

“Dismissed,” Faith ordered with as much contempt in her voice as she could manage.

Walking towards the exit she glanced at her watch; if she was lucky she could grab a cup of Gunny Leeka’s coffee and start on some of the cadet’s fitness reports before addressing the female cadets. Sighing as she pushed her way through the door into the corridor outside, Faith was under the impression that life just wasn’t fair. Not only did she have her own lectures and studying to do, she also had all the paperwork for the cadets to manage. Life was a lot easier back at Fort Shaw or even in Iraq.

0=0=0=0

Bursting through the door of Classroom B3, Faith was gratified to hear someone call the room to attention. It always gave her something of a thrill whenever people sprang to their feet when she walked into a room.

“At ease,” Faith called before adding, “sit down, I don’t want to keep ya here any longer than I have to.”

After the events of the weekend Captain Lemay had suggested that Faith, as senior female instructor should have another word with all the female cadets about personal safety on and off campus.

“Listen up people,” Faith began, “as some of you may have heard, Ashley Simmons and Liza Taylor were attacked by some kinda animal at a frat party on Saturday night,” She paused to let that sink in, “They’re both fine, but it might be an idea if some of you Navy girls check in on them, okay?”

There was a quiet, ‘Yes Ma’am’ from the direction of the Navy Midshipmen.

“Look,” Faith sighed, “I ain’t ya sister and I sure as hell ain’t ya mama, an’ I don’t wanna spoil your fun, but guys be careful!” Faith swept her eyes over the faces of the young women sitting in front of her, “I’m told by friends who’ve gone through the ‘College experience’ that it’s a time to work hard an’ party hard, an’ I don’t want to stop you doin’ that. Just…” Faith hesitated for a second, how was she supposed to warn these girls of all the evil out there when she couldn’t tell them the whole story?

“Hey,” Faith perched herself on the edge of the lecturer’s desk, “if ya go to a party go as a group. If ya going off with a guy tell one of your friends where ya goin’,” Faith looked at all the faces again and knew exactly what they were thinking, just what was this old army bitch talking about? Still she kept plugging on, “Look I’ll give you three pieces of advice; a guy whose pressuring ya for sex doesn’t love you he just wants to screw ya.”

There were a few quiet giggles at Faith’s words from her audience.

“Always get the guy's full name and address,” Faith smiled at the laugher she received, “you’ll be amazed how quickly an asshole will lose interest, where a guy who really likes you won’t mind. Lastly,” Faith held up a finger, “if ya do decide to screw some guy always insist he wears a condom. Again if he really cares about ya he won’t mind, remember it’s gonna be you who’s left holdin’ the baby…literally.”

Studying the faces of the cadets, Faith wondered if she’d got through to any of them. A few, maybe, no doubt she’d be taking a few of these girls to the medical centre over the next few months.

“Finally, people,” Faith stood up and placed her hands on her hips, “Captain Lemay an’ I have discussed this an’; we’ve decided to put Omega and Delta Houses off limits. If any of ya have boyfriends in either frat you can still see them but not at the actual frat house, okay? Questions?” There were none. “Right, dismiss,”

Faith headed for the door as someone called the room to attention. That went reasonably well, she told herself as she headed for her room. No one had tried to argue with her or start a mutiny. Of course it would remain to be seen if anyone had actually been listening to what she’d said.

0=0=0=0

**Delta House.**

“Okay,” Bob Hoover, President of Delta House, pounded on the table with the palm of his hand trying to bring his demon Frat Brothers to order, “I call this meeting of the Delta Tau Chi steering committee to order!” Slowly the other demons in the room settled down and started to pay attention to their president. “Right,” Bob took a deep breath, “so far this year we’ve done some pretty cool stuff. I think you’ll all agree that leaving a dead horse in the Dean’s office was masterful and brothers Bluto and D-Day are to be congratulated.”

There was a smattering of applause and a little back slapping as the demons congratulated their buddies.

“Strangely,” Bob continued, “there’s been very little fallout from this act of vandalism,” everyone shook their heads in sorrow, “it’s almost as if the Dean has dead horses left in his office everyday.”

There were mutterings of disappointment from the assembled demons.

“As a result of this blatant disregard of some of our best work,” Bob continued with steely resolve, “I suggest we up the ante…suggestions?”

“TOGA!” Bluto cried out happily, as the other demons took up the chant, “Toga! Toga! Toga!”

“Yeah why not,” agreed Bob, he saw Otter put up his hand wanting to be recognised. “The chair recognises Brother Otter.”

“Brothers,” Otter got to his feet and turned to address his brother demons, “although this year we have pulled off some spectacular stunts…I refer of course to the dead horse and Greg Marmalard’s erectile dysfunction,” once more there was some self-congratulation from the ‘floor’, “there has not been enough sexual indiscretions taken with the female students.”

Otter paused to let the muttered agreement of his fellow demons quieten down.

“Yes,” Otter counted off points on his fingers, “we’ve had vampires on campus…and how we failed to notice that for the last fifteen years I don’t know.”

The demons looked at each other in some embarrassment.

“There have been the unrelenting bloody rites conducted by Omega House,” Otter continued; although Delta House was almost entirely made up of demons and they might be (in the strictest sense of the word) ‘evil’, they hardly ever actually killed anyone. “these events have all made us more, shall we say, more circumspect in our actions, but we must overcome these barriers to our continuing with our life’s work.”

“Hear! Hear!” cried Boon from the floor, a good toga orgy would upset and confuse his ‘girlfriend’ Katy no end.

“So,” Otter was now nearing the end of his little speech, “lets not let anything get in the way of this being the most depraved, debouched toga party in the history of Faber College.”

The demons cheered and Bob once again pounded on the table with his hand trying to restore order.

“I’ll enter that into the minutes as being passed by acclamation, no vote required,” Bob made a note in the minutes. “Okay then,” Bob looked around at the eager, demonic faces in front of him, “Boon, you get the beer in…”

“Hey, I know were I can get some extra strong stuff,” Boon announced, “we can change the labels and no one will suspect…until it’s too late!”

“Excellent!” Bob nodded as he made another note, “Stork, can you deal with the seduction and compulsion spells?”

The demon in the dirty Mack and thick glasses nodded his head.

“Right,” Bob nodded to himself, there was no need to hand out any other jobs everyone knew what was expected of them. “It just remains to choose a day for the party…everyone okay with next Friday night?”

There were mutterings of accent as the meeting broke up as the demons went about their nefarious employment.

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s Room, later that evening.**

Sitting at her computer, Faith came to the end of a paragraph just as a soft knock sounded on her door. More than a little grateful for the interruption she saved her work and closed the program she’d been using. Getting up she went over to the door and opened it.

“Hi!” Willow smiled as she stood in the corridor.

“Willow!” Faith sighed with relief, “Come on in.”

Waiting until the red head was inside the room and the door was firmly shut behind her, Faith gathered Willow into her arms and gave her a long, lingering kiss.

“That’s nice,” Willow smiled when Faith eventually stopped and let her go, “Hey, did you know there’s about half-a-dozen guys in uniforms lined up outside?”

“Oh crap,” Faith glanced at her watch, “I was working and I lost track of time…”

“And these guys are here to guard you while you type?” Willow moved to sit on the edge of Faith’s bed.

“Nah,” Faith shook her head, “that’s Neidermyer an’ his boys…”

“Ah,” Willow nodded knowingly, “this is the guy whose ass you were going to roast, right?”

“Yeah,” Faith sat back down in her chair and started to put on her running shoes.

“Doesn’t look much like ass roasting to me,” Willow pointed out, before suggesting, “you know I could really roast his ass if you wanted.”

“Y’know we’re not really allowed to actually roast people’s asses,” Faith stood up and laughed at the disappointed look on Willow’s face, “look I’ve gotta inspect these dick-wads I’ll be back in a minute, make yourself comfy why don’t you?”

0=0=0=0

Ten minutes later, Faith returned to her room to find that Willow’s idea of ‘getting comfy’ was to strip down to her underwear and sprawl across her bed in a most provocative manner.

“Hey,” Faith frowned, but it was only a very small frown, “I don’t wanna appear ungrateful but what if I’d been someone else?”

“Then I’d have screamed and claimed one of us was in the wrong room,” Willow explained only a little hurt by Faith’s reaction: she knew Faith had to be careful but it still annoyed her.

“Whatever,” Faith sighed as she bounced down on the mattress next to Willow, she put her arms around her girlfriend once more, “so what ya bin doin’ all day?”

“Well,” Willow snuggled up to Faith, “I took a room at a local motel so I won’t embarrass you by staying in your room.”

“You don’t embarrass me, baby,” Faith kissed Willow on the forehead, “its just…”

“I know,” Willow looked into Faith’s eyes and once more felt the guilt bubble up in her chest about not telling Faith what she really was, “you have to be careful…anyway, I sent a long report to Colonel Mann and Giles. I told her everything we’ve done, found out and suspect…”

“Everything?” Faith teased.

“Well not actually _everything_ ,” Willow said with a laugh, “I missed the good bits out.”

“So what did they say?” Faith wanted to know.

“Nothing much,” Willow rested her head against Faith’s shoulder, “apart from watching for new developments.”

“Look,” Faith sounded worried, “its almost the middle of October, those Omega assholes will be snatching more girls for their yearly sacrifice, I don’t want anymore girls being killed.”

“I know honey,” Willow agreed quietly, “anything happen from the stuff over the weekend.”

“Not really,” Faith shrugged, “those two girls, Liza and Ashley they were sent home from hospital yesterday…”

“They’re okay?”

“Yeah, fine,” Faith gathered her thoughts, “no one's said anything about Theta House burning down and me an’ Captain Lemay have put both Omega and Delta frat houses off limits.”

“Wow!” Willow lifted her head to look at Faith, “You can do that?”

“Sure,” Faith nodded.

“I’m impressed,” Willow admitted, “now,” she out her arms around Faith’s neck, “why don’t you impress me some more?”

0=0=0=0


	14. Chapter 14

14.

**Thursday Afternoon.**

Watching her cadets go over the assault course, Faith made a few notes on the clipboard she was carrying. The test she’d set the cadets was to get over the assault course in the shortest time possible, a simple race you might think. But it was more than that; Faith had added that the time for each team’s completion of the course would be taken only after the last team member had crossed the finishing line. Not only was this a race it was a test of team work and team spirit.

Looking over towards the finish line, Faith shook her head; Chip Diller was already standing at the finishing point looking very pleased with himself. Putting a big ‘x’ next to Diller’s name Faith decided she would not be picking him for the army team to take part in the inter-platoon competitions at the beginning of November. Not only was Diller a smarmy little bastard, he was also a selfish, smarmy little bastard! Several of his team mates were having difficulties getting over some of the obstacles but Diller wasn’t making move one to go and help them out. Also, as he was a member of Omega house he was probably mixed up in kidnapping girls and feeding them to demons in the basement of the frat house.

One of Faith’s jobs was to keep an eye on the cadets academic performance, basically this boiled down to checking on a cadets ‘grade point average’. The irony of someone like herself who’d no recollection of going to school checking on those who’d obviously done pretty well at High School was not lost on her. Silently she thanked providence that she’d bothered to take the time to complete several army education courses over the years. Since the disappearance of Becky, the girl who’d vanished a couple of weeks ago, Diller’s grade point average had been climbing steadily. Either he’d knuckled down to some hard work or he’d become a follower of Machida, Faith felt it was a pretty safe bet that Diller was now a demon worshipper.

In contrast to Diller, Faith looked over to where Dorfman struggled to complete the course. Yes, Dorfman was overweight and clumsy, but he had heart, Faith knew who she’d prefer watching her back. She’d _prefer_ one of the Rangers from the 613th but in a toss-up between Diller and Dorfman she’d take Dorfman. Just at the moment Dorfman (with the help of two of his team-mates) was trying to get over the eight foot wall and failing dismally.

Turning once more to check who’d reached the finish line, Faith saw that Neidermyer and his ‘Special Squad’ were standing and grinning at the other cadets who were still struggling to finish. However, more than half of the cadets had now finished or were running in the last few yards. Making a few more notations on her clipboard, Faith had a good idea of who she’d be picking for the army team. For a start it wouldn’t be any of Neidermyer’s team. Yes they were fit, yes they worked as a team; but, they worked as a team to get Neidermyer over the course in the fastest possible time.

Looking back to where Dorfman and his team-mates struggled, Faith shook her head and sighed, unless she wanted to stay out here all night she’d have to do something. Putting down her clipboard, Faith trotted easily over to where Dorfman struggled.

“Okay you guys,” Faith called to the two cadets helping Dorfman, “go finish the course I’ll deal with Mr Dorfman…” the cadets gave each other worried looks, “…don’t worry,” Faith smiled, “I ain’t gonna eat him, now ‘get’ and good work by the way…”

Faith watched as the cadets scrambled over the wall with the aid of the ropes provided and disappeared from her view.

“Mr Dorfman,” Faith sighed heavily, “what am I gonna do with ya?”

“I don’t know Ma’am,” Dorfman looked as if he thought Faith was going to beat on him or something.

“Don’t look so scared,” Faith glanced up at the wall, “I ain’t gonna yell at you,” she knew that no amount of yelling was going to get Dorfman across that wall, “here…” placing her back against the wall, Faith cupped her hands, “Put ya foot in my hands an’ I’ll boast ya up, remember, when ya get in reach of the top grab hold, okay?”

“Okay,” Dorfman replied uncertainly; after a bit of a struggle Dorfman got his foot into Faith’s cupped hands.

“Okay,” Faith tried to sound encouraging, “now grab hold of my shoulders,” she now found herself with a close up view of Dorfman’s belly with only a thin track suit top between her and it, “On three,” she called, “THREE!”

The trick was to throw Dorfman far enough so he couldn’t fail but to hold onto the top of the wall, but not hard enough to throw him right over the wall. Looking up Faith saw Dorfman struggling like an animated sack of potatoes as he tried to hold on to the top of the wall. Grabbing hold of the rope next to her (not that she really needed it; she could have jumped clean over the wall) Faith scrambled up the wall and pulled Dorfman up to sit next to her.

“See how easy that was, Mr Dorfman,” Faith grinned; if the truth was told, with her super-soldier powers, Faith found all obstacle courses ridiculously easy.

“Yes, Ma’am,” Dorfman replied dutifully but without any real conviction.

“Over we go!” Faith grabbed hold of Dorfman and dragged him the rest of the way over the wall before letting him go and watching him fall to the ground, “Bad Chief Lehane,” she scolded herself before jumping down and landing next to Dorfman. “Come on Mr Dorfman,” Faith grabbed him by the belt that held up his BDU’s, “lets get moving soldier!”

More or less dragging Dorfman over the rest of the assault course, Faith remembered doing the same thing for her friend Judy Benjamin back in Basic. Of course Judy had improved and gone on to greater and better things in Public Relations and Recruiting; the last time Faith had checked, Judy was still in the army and had been promoted to First Lieutenant. But there really wasn’t any hope for Dorfman, he was overweight and clumsy and it looked as if that was how he was going to stay. Dragging an exhausted Dorfman over the finishing line, Faith smiled at her cadets; while Dorfman lay on the damp ground gasping like a recently landed fish, Faith on the other hand looked as fresh as a daisy.

“Okay people,” Faith called out, “good work all of you…” Faith ran her eyes over the cadets, yes she told herself they had done well, most of them, “…I’ll have the selection for the team spots by Monday and pin them on the notice board. There’ll be no training tomorrow…” there was a surprised gasp from the cadets, “…yeah I know,” Faith admitted, “I must be getting soft in my old age, now hit them showers…GO!”

With a cheer the cadets turned and headed for the locker rooms, Faith watched as Dorfman struggled to his feet and started too stumble after his fellow recruits.

“Not you, Mr Dorfman,” Faith called quietly, as she pointed to a spot on the grass a couple of feet in front of her, “Front and centre.”

“Oh crap,” Dorfman whispered to himself; Faith pretended not to have heard him.

“Okay, Mr Dorfman brace up there,” Faith looked Dorfman up and down, he looked as if a strong wind would knock him down. “Alright, Kent,” Faith rested a comradely hand on Dorfman’s shoulder, “ya mind if I call ya Kent?”

“No Ma’am,” Dorfman shook his head and looked at Faith as if he was a rabbit mesmerised by the headlights of an approaching truck.

“Look, Kent,” Faith started to explain gently as she knew how, “there’s no shame in it, and I gotta say you try real hard,” this was true, Dorfman tried real hard at every challenge given him and inevitably failed, “but not everyone is cut out for the military life and ya might wanna think about cutting ROTC.”

“But I can’t!” Dorfman cried.

“And why’s that?” Faith asked solicitously.

“The army’s paying my college fees,” Dorfman pointed out close to tears, “I’ll have to leave college if you flunk me.”

“Oh,” Faith nodded her head, she really didn’t want to be the cause of Dorfman missing out on part of his education, “Okay,” she said slowly, “I’ll see what I can do, but…” Faith stood back and let her hand drop to her side, “…we’re gonna have to do something. Way things a goin’ ya gonna hurt y’self or get someone else hurt. Come an’ see me on Monday and we’ll get this dealt with, okay?”

“Yes Ma’am,” Dorfman gasped relieved, “thank-you Ma’am.”

“Now get to them showers, GO!” Faith watched as Dorfman ran off towards the locker rooms, “Crap, Lehane maybe you are getting’ soft in ya old age.”

Shrugging at the prospect of her approaching dotage, Faith collected up her clipboard and turned her feet towards Potter Hall. Whatever happened to Dorfman on Monday, Faith had to make sure she was still alive on Monday to help the poor sap out. Tomorrow night, Willow and herself were going to take down Omega house once and for all; she’d deal with the fraternity brothers while Willow would deal with the demon Machida.

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s Room, Potter Hall.**

“Hi!” Willow called as Faith opened the door, “I hope you don’t mind but I let myself in.”

“Sure fine,” Faith replied surprised to find her girlfriend sitting in her armchair with a laptop on her lap, “not a problem.”

“Someone brought you presents,” Willow nodded to the big back pack and wooden crate that lay next to the door.

Cursing herself for taking things for granted, Willow closed up her computer and put it to one side, whatever Faith might have said, she obviously did mind her just letting herself in.

“Sorry,” Willow stood up, “I shoulda waited for you to come back, I won’t do it again.”

“Hey no,” Faith glanced at Willow from looking down at her ‘gifts’, “I just got some stuff on my mind.”

“Anything I can help with?” Willow asked hopefully wanting to make amends.

“Nah,” Faith shook her head as she tossed the backpack on her bed before unlocking the catches that held the lid of the crate closed; the crate was about a foot deep and two wide and about forty inches long, smiling Faith opened the box, “cooool!”

“What ya got?” Willow stepped forward, “Who’s been sending you…” Willow’s voice faded away as she saw what was in the box, “…guns!?”

“I got the guys at Fort Drum to send me my stuff,” Faith explained as she removed her trusty AS2 from the box, “ya know, for tomorrow night.”

“Y-you’re not gonna shoot everyone, are you?” Willow asked uncertainly.

“Well, duh!” Faith laughed, “Of course I am…”

“But…!” Willow started to interject.

“…but not fatally,” Faith finished her sentence, “I want those bastards to spend a long-long time in jail.”

“Phew,” Willow laughed nervously, “I was thinking you were going to burst in with all guns blazing and I realise now that I’ve just annoyed you again,” Willow gave Faith her best ‘kicked puppy’ look before adding, “sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Faith put down her assault shotgun and went to stand in front of Willow, “we need to get to know each other better. Ya know I’m not all about the guns,” Faith grinned wickedly as she took Willow in her arms, “sometimes it’s the knives and explosives too!”

“Bitch!” Willow laughed and gave Faith a half hearted slap.

“Okay,” Faith let Willow go before turning back to her weaponry, “so what cha bin doin’?”

“Well,” Willow moved back towards the chair and perched on its arm, “I’ve been researching Machida…”

“And?” Faith asked as she knelt by the crate and put empty magazines and full boxes of cartridges on the floor next to it.

“Well there isn’t a specific ‘Machida banishing’ spell but there’s some pretty powerful general anti-demon spells,” Willow explained, “nothing I can’t handle.”

“You sure?” Faith got up and grabbed the back pack before emptying its contents onto her bed.

“No problem,” Willow replied as she watched fascinated as Faith went through the pile of black clothes and equipment on her bed.

“Here,” Faith passed Willow a pair of black BDU pants and a jacket, “try those on for size.”

“W-what!?” Willow gasped as she held the uniform to her chest, “Like when did I enlist?”

“Hey,” Faith grinned, “I’m not having you look like some hippy commando in a flowery dress…”

“I thought you liked my flowery dress,” Willow replied sadly.

“I do,” Faith nodded, “but not when we’re taking down a bunch of demon worshipping frat boys.”

“Oh,” Willow could actually see Faith’s point, it was just that what she wore when tackling demons had never really been an issue before, “yeah I get that.”

“Go inta the bathroom and change,” Faith gestured towards her bathroom and watched as Willow shuffled off and closed the door behind her.

~Five minutes later.~

“Don’t laugh,” Willow announced as she opened the bathroom door and stood ready for Faith’s inspection.

“HA-HA!” Faith laughed as she watched the little commando-witch come out of the bathroom; the ‘first’ time Faith could remember seeing Willow, the witch had been dressed in slightly too large camouflaged BDU’s, at the time Faith had thought Willow’d looked kind of cute, but not today. “Those are sooo too big for ya,” Faith sniggered only to be interrupted by Willow.

“TOO BIG!” Willow held up her hand, the sleeve of the jacket ended six inches passed where her fingers stopped.

“Hey, keep the noise down,” Faith cried as she stifled her amusement, “people will wonder what we’re doin’ in here,” Faith gave Willow one last look before admitting, “Okay those are way too big…”

“Y’think?” Willow sniffed.

“Musta got the sizes wrong or something,” Faith observed before an idea hit her, “hey couldn’t you magic them smaller?”

“Magic isn’t for frivolous things like making clothes fit,” Willow had leant her lesson about the use of magic over the years, “and anyway I’ve got to save my mental and physical energies for tomorrow night…”

“Physical…?” Faith asked uncertainly.

“Yeah, sorry honey,” Willow looked like a small, sad girl playing at soldiers, “but if we’re gonna take down Machida tomorrow night I can’t stop over, I’ll go back to the motel and stay there the night.”

“Must you?” Faith pleaded

“Sorry…” Willow wasn’t too happy about the idea of not spending the night either.

“Yeah, okay,” Faith told herself to suck it up and get with the program, there’d be other nights, “ya might as well get outta those things.”

“Thanks,” Willow shuffled back into the bathroom, “tell you what though,” she called as she changed back into her street clothes, I could get some black cargo pants and some sorta black jacket…oh! And I’ll need some boots or something won’t I?”

“Good idea,” Faith called as she started to strip down her AS2 and clean it, “if ya don’t mind.”

A couple of minutes later Willow reappeared in her normal clothes and sat down in the chair again. While Faith sat cross legged on the floor cleaning her gun the two women discussed their battle plan for the following night. It didn’t need to be too detailed, there would be just the two of them, after all one demon and a bunch of frat boys weren’t going to cause a super-soldier and a mega witch that much trouble. At about nine thirty, Willow looked at her watch.

“Hey,” Willow sighed, “I better get going and get a good night's sleep.”

“Yeah,” Faith didn’t exactly sound thrilled with the prospect of spending the night alone when her lover was in town, “you want me to walk ya home?”

“No,” Willow got up and started to collect her computer and magic things, “now there’s no vamps on campus I’ll be fine and, hey…” Willow paused to give Faith a bright smile, “…mega witch here, I’ll be okay.”

“Ya sure?” Faith got up to kiss Willow goodnight.

“Sure I’m sure,” Willow sighed, “and I’m sorry for just barging in earlier…”

“An’ I’m sorry for being so grouchy too,” Faith kissed Willow lightly on the lips.

“I didn’t know you did impressions of French generals,” Willow giggled.

“Huh?” Faith frowned at Willow as if she’d suddenly gone insane.

“Never mind,” Willow picked up her bag and headed for the door, “I’ll explain later, see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, sure,” Faith replied absently, she was still trying to work out what Willow had just said, “Eighteen-hundred sharp.”

“Yeah sure,” Willow paused in the doorway, “eighteen…?”

“Six o’clock,” Faith gave an exasperated sigh and watched as Willow left her room.

0=0=0=0

**Faber College Campus.**

“Well that went well…not!” Willow said to herself as she followed the path towards the parking lot where she’d left her hire car. 

Not only had she pissed Faith off about just letting herself into her room, but she still hadn’t told her about moving to Grandview so they could spend more time together. Neither had she asked Faith if she’d like her to try and get her memories back. Once again, Willow questioned the whole idea of diving into that particular can of worms, she shivered a little at the mental imagery of diving into a can of worms. Perhaps it would be better to let Faith live out her life in blissful ignorance of what she’d been before she was soldier-Faith, that can of worms just kept getting bigger. But, hadn’t Faith a right to know about her past? The more Willow thought about it the more she was sure that Faith’s amnesia wasn’t natural, someone or something was blocking the memories of her past life.

Glancing up, Willow turned down a path that wasn’t very well lit and where the trees on either side of the path blocked out what moon and starlight there was. Shivering at the Fall chill, she increased her pace eager to get to the warmth of her car. Hurrying along she didn’t notice the six or seven dark shapes that flitted from shadow to shadow. At least she didn’t notice them until it was too late.

0=0=0=0

“ _Emmanuel de Grouchy, second Marquis de Grouchy, October 23, 1766 to May 29, 1847, was a French general and marshal…_ ” Faith read the words from her computer screen, “You’re just plain weird Willow Rosenberg.”

0=0=0=0


	15. Chapter 15

15.

**Thursday Night, Faber College Campus.**

Feeling the strong arms wrap themselves around her and forcing her arms against her body, Willow jerked her head back and caught her assailant on the nose. Hearing a muffled, ‘OW! The bitch!’ Willow knew she’d hit home, seeing a figure coming at her from out of the deep shadows under the trees she lashed out with her mind and sent her would be attacker tumbling head over heels onto the ground.

Something like a freight train hit her from the side knocking her off her feet and tumbling to the ground. Striking out, at her attacker Willow found that her small fists had no effect on the two hundred pounds of muscle and bone that was at present holding her down. Wriggling about under the weight of her foe she tried to get her arms free enough to make magical gestures. Opening her mouth to utter a spell she found a pad of surgical gauze placed over her nose and mouth. Panicking she caught the chemical smell that forced its way up her nose.

Realising that the pad must be laced with chloroform, Willow redoubled her efforts to break free. But it was all to no avail, several pairs of strong hands now held her down. Her struggles soon exhausted the air in her lungs forcing her to breathe the chemical in, as soon as she did, she felt her airway start to tingle and everything around her seemed to go all fuzzy. Still fighting against the effects of the chloroform, Willow’s eyes fluttered closed and she drifted off into a chemically induced sleep.

“Crap!” Chip Diller climbed from to his feet only taking his hand away from his broken nose long enough to remove the black ski mask that had been hiding his face. “What is it with these women, are they all doing self defence or something?”

He kicked Willow’s sleeping form in the stomach eliciting a groan from the drugged witch; Chip was one of those guys who thought that the only place for a woman was flat on her back. 

“Dyke bitch,” Chip added and kicked Willow again; another thing women shouldn’t do was fight back, “She broke my nose!”

“Hey!” Neidermyer warned as he saw Diller bring back his foot to kick Willow again, “Don’t damage the offering,” turning to one of his Special Squad he issued orders, “Okay, lets get her back to the frat, someone find her bag.”

“Here,” Joe Flint one of Neidermyer’s men held up Willow’s bag, “I’ve got it,” he started to rifle through the contents as a couple of guys pulled Willow to her feet.

“Get her secured in the frat house,” Neidermyer ordered the two guys holding Willow up, “we’ll do the clean up.”

The two Special Squad guys began to drag Willow towards Omega house, while Neidermyer walked over to the man who was searching Willow’s bag.

“What you got?” Neidermyer demanded.

“Computer,” the Special Squad thug searched Willow’s bag thoroughly, “make-up…ah! Purse!”

Dropping the bag he opened the wallet like purse and quickly found Willow’s driving licence.

“California driving licence in the name of ‘Willow Rosenberg’,” he held out the card for Neidermyer to see.

“A kike and a hippy,” Neidermyer sneered, “it just gets better, anything else.”

“No student ID,” Flint said after checking the rest of Willow purse, “looks like she’s from out of town, probably visiting someone on campus.”

“Good,” Neidermyer pulled off his sky mask, “no clean up to do. Okay men,” he continued in the tone of voice he believed combat officers used, “good work get back to your rooms and I’ll see you all on Saturday night and remember, keep your mouths shut!”

There was a muted chorus of ‘Sir’ as the kidnappers faded away into the darkness; Flint handed Neidermyer, Willow’s bag before vanishing into the night leaving Neidermyer and Chip Diller to do the clean up of the actual attack site. Scanning the ground Neidermyer saw nothing incriminating left on the grass, turning to Chip he smirked; fancy letting a woman break his nose. For a moment Neidermyer questioned letting Chip join the inner circle; well it couldn’t be helped now, Chip was in but he’d need watching just in case this was more than just a temporary blip.

“Here,” Neidermyer threw Willow’s bag to Chip, “carry that and in the morning get that nose fixed up, you’re bleeding all over everything!”

0=0=0=0

About fifty feet away a shadow detached itself from a tree and started moving quietly away from the scene of the kidnapping. Shaking his head in bewilderment, ‘Otter’ Stratton wondered what the hell was going on. It had been a weird day and in the last five minutes it had just got weirder.

Knowing exactly what the Omega frat boys wanted with the girlfriend of Faith Lehane, Otter wondered what he should do about it and should he do something about it? He was, after all a demon, okay he and his brethren were fairly harmless Mischief Demons but he was a demon and as a result he should act in a totally immoral way, but he found he really didn’t have his hearts in it. This was what happened if you lived amongst humans for too long, he told himself.

What the Omega boys were going to do with Willow Rosenberg was to sacrifice her to Machida, their demon overlord. Once the Delta Demons had found out that the Omega boys were into some pretty serious demon worship it was easy to find out which demon was in charge. What Machida did to girls and women went right against Otter’s ethos. Girls were made for romance and to eventually have inappropriate sex with and very occasionally impregnate with his spawn. They were not to be used to feed some stinking snake demon with delusions of grandeur. Plus there was another thing, Willow Rosenberg was the girlfriend of Faith Lehane, the human woman he’d been infatuated with since the beginning of the semester.

Having spent most of his spare time stalking Ms Lehane, he’d quickly found out all her little secrets. First he’d found out that she was a Slayer who’d joined the military; he also found out that Ms Lehane was a lesbian or at least bisexual. Now while Otter had no objections to watching a couple of girls or women making out, it was against his principles (what few he had) to force himself on a human female who wasn’t going to enjoy the experience…plus there was the whole ‘slayer’ thing.

He’d watched, Ms Lehane and Ms Rosenberg together and listened to Bluto’s account of them making out in Ms Lehane’s room with interest. Bluto’s sudden discovery and his trip through the air on his ladder also told Otter that there was something odd about Ms Rosenberg, he didn’t know what it was yet but given time he’d work it out. So, Otter did some serious thinking as he headed back to Delta house; the Omega boys had kidnapped the girlfriend of a slayer who was also a soldier. This was bound to cause trouble and trouble meant that there would be more slayers and more slayers meant that there was a chance that Delta house might get found out. Slayers tended to slay first and ask what kind of demon you were later, Otter had no intention of having his long and enjoyable life on Earth cut short by an over eager teenage slayer.

There were also other considerations; although as soon as he’d found out about Ms Lehane’s preferences he’d stopped stalking her, the thing was he still liked her. For a human she seemed quite charming in her own rough cut way and of course there was Flounder.

Flounder was in the part of the ROTC run by Ms Lehane and if Flounder’s reports were to be believed, Ms Lehane had saved him on several occasions from Neidermyer and had been kind to him on several more. Today was a good example; Ms Lehane had helped Flounder over the assault course and not yelled at him when he couldn’t do it by himself. She’d even said she’d not throw him out and try to help him when he’d told her the army was paying for his education and he’d be thrown out of college if he flunked out.

Now Flounder might be a human, but he was part of the frat and Ms Lehane was at least trying to help him (personally Otter thought that Flounder was a lost cause). Ms Lehane had helped a frat brother so the frat was duty bound to help her and as a result prevent hordes of slayers swamping the campus and killing harmless (well, mostly harmless) mischief demons. Moving faster as he got closer to the frat house, Otter didn’t know how he’d work this all out but he’d find away. The honour of the frat was at stake, what little it had left, and the thought of all those sword wielding slayers really frightened him. Omega house must be stopped!

0=0=0=0

**Faith’s Room, Friday Morning.**

Rolling over, Faith panicked for a second when she didn’t bump into Willow’s body. Remembering that she’d gone back to sleep in her motel room, Faith relaxed. Turning her head she checked on the time. Good, she rolled out of bed and headed for the bathroom, plenty of time for a run before breakfast.

Minutes later she’d thrown on her underwear from yesterday and her track suit, sitting on the edge of her bed she tied her shoe laces then headed outside. Pausing at the door of Potter Hall she looked up at the sky, it was a grey, damp Autumn morning. It wasn’t raining yet but it soon would be. Setting herself a brisk pace, Faith set off on her usual morning route, this would take her right around the campus and was mostly hidden from prying early morning eyes. There were several sections where she could use her super-soldier speed to its fullest and not have anyone see her.

Trotting back to Potter Hall, she was up stairs and in her room before most of her fellow students were even out of bed. Showered and dressed, Faith checked her e-mails before going to the refectory to get breakfast. Sitting at her table, Faith ate her breakfast while she checked over the reading she needed to have done for today’s lessons. Smiling to herself she thanked whatever scientist that had helped ‘make’ her, that she didn’t need much sleep.

Not only did she have her school work to do, there was her work with the JROTC which included a lot of paperwork, then there were demons and vampires to kill, plus she had her social life to think about, it all mounted up. Thoughts of her social life brought thoughts of Willow to her mind, her rather dreamy smile was quickly replaced with a frown. Last night hadn’t gone too well. Okay, yeah they’d planned out their assault on Omega house, but relationship-wise it had been a bit of a failure. Willow had annoyed her by just coming into her room and making herself comfortable and then there was that crack about guns.

It was obvious to Faith that this relationship needed more work, up until recently it was all about the sex, which was good. But now they could spend more time together it needed to be about other stuff; the words mutual respect entered Faith’s mind and not unlocking doors and camping out in someone’s room uninvited. Hesitantly, Faith reached for her cell to call Willow and arrange a lunch date. Noticing the time, she shelved any thought of calling Willow just now, she’d obviously been sitting there daydreaming as it was almost time for her first class.

Standing up, Faith headed for the door, as she did so a young guy bumped into her, she recognised him from around campus but didn’t know his name. He apologised profusely for colliding with her before walking on. Faith was just thinking how nice it was that at least some of the student body still had manners, when she discovered that the guy had slipped a note into her hand.

“Wow,” Faith said as she looked at the neatly folded square of paper in her hand, “I didn’t even feel him do that!”

Walking on to class she decided she’d read it before the lecture began, after all it was probably just some sort of prank.

0=0=0=0

**Willow’s Dungeon, Friday Morning.**

Waking up with an odd metallic taste in her mouth, Willow found herself in a pitch dark room.

“Illumino!” she ordered and several ‘tinker-belle lights sprang into existence.

It was as she feared; she’d been kidnapped and thrown into a dark room, by the feel of it-it was under ground. Whoever had done this to her appeared to be a stickler for tradition, because not only was she in a dark dungeon but she was also chained to the wall. She had a pretty good idea who’d done this, after all there was unlikely to be two demon worshipping cults on campus who needed female sacrifices. However much they’d hurt and frightened her it would be as nothing to the hurt and fear they’d feel once she got free.

“Libero!” Willow told the chains around her wrists, nothing happened, she tried again just in case the chains didn’t understand Latin, “LIBERO! RELEASE!” The chains remained stubbornly attached to her wrists, “Maybe they’re enchanted?”

Willow examined the chains, if they were enchanted it would take a little more power to break them but she could do that. Looking closely at her bonds, Willow realised she’d not break them without a cutter of some kind. The chains were made of iron and thus proof against her magic.

“Damn it!” Willow cried.

The cuffs didn’t even have a lock to secure them, they were bolted to her wrists; she tried to move the bolt with her mind but they’d been tightened too hard for her to shift, even telekinesis obeyed natural laws; she just didn’t have the leverage.

“Damn-it! Damn-it! DAMN-IT!” Willow stormed in her frustration, “Okay,” she told herself, “losing it isn’t going to help.”

If she couldn’t get free herself, perhaps she could send a message to Faith to come get her. Relaxing the best that she could, Willow closed her eyes and concentrated on the idea of Faith. It was only then that she noticed the buzzing noise at the back of her brain. Reaching out with her mind she found herself brought up short just about where the building she was in stopped.

“The sneaky bastards,” Willow cursed.

The frat boys who’d kidnapped her lived in a house that had had a kind of Faraday Cage installed in it. Not only did it make electronic eavesdropping difficult it also blocked her telepathy and any spells she might direct at the outside world; she was in an electronic field that acted like a pentagram. Nothing inside could get out and nothing outside could get in. Of course that wouldn’t stop purely physical attack. A physical attack that Faith would launch as soon as she realised the Omega demon worshippers had kidnapped her.

Opening her eyes again, Willow noticed that her little lights were beginning fade. Stopping herself from renewing the spell, after all she didn’t know how long she’d be down here and there wasn’t anything to see anyway. Willow sighed and leaned back against the wall of her prison. It looked like she’d have to wait for Faith to rescue her, if she hadn’t pissed her girlfriend off sufficiently that she’d just leave her to rot down here or be fed to a snake. No, Willow told herself, however much Faith might be pissed at her she wouldn’t leave her down here…would she?

0=0=0=0

**Omega House, Friday Morning.**

Selecting his breakfast from the silver serving dishes that sat on the hot plat in the Omega House dining room, Greg Marmalard looked around and saw Neidermyer sitting by himself over by the window, he went over to join his frat brother.

“Morning, Greg,” Neidermyer looked up as Greg sat down on the other side of the table.

“Morning Doug,” Greg sat and made himself comfortable, “good work last night by the way, she’ll make a fine offering.”

“You’ve seen her then?” Doug asked as he lifted a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice to his lips.

“Oh yes,” Greg nodded as he started in on his breakfast, “I took a look last night.” For a moment a dark cloud seemed to cross Greg’s face; normally when he saw a young attractive woman chained and helpless it gave him a hard-on, but not last night, he’d felt nothing other than concern, perhaps he needed to get a check up. “Only another two to find.”

“I’ve got my eye on a couple of prospects,” Doug smiled, “they won’t be missed.”

“Good, good,” Greg agreed before giving his fellow worshipper an earnest look, “are you sure that Machida won’t mind the offering coming early this year?”

“It’ll be fine,” Doug reassured his friend, “I did some checking, in the books it just says ‘October’ this thing about ‘late October’ is just something new that’s grown up in the last hundred years.”

“Oh good,” Greg smiled, “on another note, you know Delta house is having a Toga Party tonight?”

“I had heard,” Doug sneered.

“Well,” Greg smirked, “I’m having digital cameras put up to look through their windows,” he laughed, “the feed will go directly to the Dean’s office, it’ll be the first thing he sees on Monday morning when he comes into work.”

“Excellent!” Doug smiled, “By the end of next week Delta House will have their Charter revoked and will be thrown off campus!”

“Yes,” Greg agreed, “everything seems to be working out just fine…now who have you chosen for the other offerings?”

0=0=0=0


	16. Chapter 16

16.

**Faith’s Room, Potter Hall, Friday Evening.**

Slipping a last magazine of twelve gauge shells into the pouch on her body armour, Faith watched her reflection in the mirror with a certain amount of detachment. The day had dragged by until now it was dark and she could go out and play ‘Terminator’ and ‘oh-boy’ was she going to play Terminator. Those Omega House punks had kidnapped Willow and they were going to pay; not that she intended to kill anyone, those Omega low-lives would just be wishing she’d killed them as they got repeatedly gang-raped in prison.

After the note had been pressed into her hand, Faith had gone to her lectures as normal. It hadn’t been until nearly eleven o’clock in the morning that she’d found the time to read the note. Opening out the piece of paper she read the words written in a hand that wasn’t Willow’s; it just said ‘Call Willow’. Shrugging, Faith had got out her cell and phoned Willow’s number, the cell rang and rang and rang with no answer; it didn’t even go to voice mail. Puzzled, Faith had looked at her cell and wondered why Willow would send a note telling her to call her and then not be around to pick-up. Then it struck her; why would Willow send a note by a stranger to call her?

“Fine cop you’re gonna be!” Faith told herself as she headed outside, something was wrong here and it looked like it involved Willow.

Not having a car available, Faith looked around for some mode of transport to get her to Willow’s motel. Snatching a bicycle out of a student’s hand she jumped onto the saddle and pedalled at high speed down to Willow’s motel. Exerting some super-soldier strength, Faith broke into Willow’s room and found it empty. From a quick examination of he room (Faith was in fact turning into a pretty good ‘cop’ whatever she might think) it was obvious that Willow hadn’t spent the night there.

‘Okay’, Faith asked herself, if not here then where? Retracing her steps, she found Willow’s hire car still in the college parking lot. Now Faith started to really get worried, what if those Omega guys had realised Willow and herself were on to them and had kidnapped or killed Willow and were at this moment tracking her down in an attempt to kill her too. Well, Faith sneered, they’d have one pretty pissed-off super-soldier to deal with if they were. Turning the bike to peddle over to Omega House and beat the truth out of the bozos, Faith stopped herself. While beating the Omega Fraternity to a bloody pulp would be very satisfying, she’d probably be the one who ended up in jail unless she actually found Willow’s abused and beaten body.

A tear ran down Faith cheek at the thought of Willow being dead and she almost started out to Omega house again to exact bloody vengeance. With a great effort of will she stopped herself and wiped away the tear with the back of her hand, this needed to be done properly. She was supposed to be an investigator, a Federal Agent no less, she needed to at least appear to be following procedure; she needed ‘probable cause’. Then she could blast her way into Omega house and take these bastards down. It was then she remembered the guy who’d pressed the note into her hand, he probably knew something and it wouldn’t take more than five minutes to beat it out of him.

0=0=0=0

It took Faith maybe two hours to find Eric ‘Otter’ Stratton and about two minutes to get him to spill the beans; she’d not even had to hit him, he seemed eager to tell her everything he knew; another enemy of Omega House she wondered. Stratton kept going on about how much he admired her and how she’d helped out one of his frat brothers. Starting to lose her patience, Faith threatened bodily violence and got Stratton to stop babbling and tell her all he knew.

He told her how he’d seen Neidermyer and his commando’s snatch Willow as she’d headed for her car the previous night. It was his opinion that Neidermyer had snatched her because he was going to ‘do’ something terrible to her during one of the weird rites Omega conducted in their hidden basement.

“Hidden basement?” Faith asked with a frown.

“Yeah,” Otter nodded his head eagerly, “the one that’s accessed through the hall closet, just turn the third coat hook from the left twice to the right and it opens a secret door at the back…”

“Hey,” Faith looked closely at Otter, “how’d you know about this stuff.”

“There’s no time to explain,” Otter insisted, “you go along the corridor and take the steps to the right, do _not_ go down the steps to the left that’s a trap.”

“Okay got that,” Faith nodded, in all her time as an MP she’d never had such a helpful witness, “who’s in on it?”

“Just about all of Omega House, one way or another,” Otter explained, “but there’s maybe twenty in the inner cycle. If you go in tonight just after eight you’ll catch all the top rank players, they’re having a pre-offering meeting.”

“Offering…?” Faith gasped.

When she looked again Stratton was gone, she’d not even felt him slip from her grasp, but it didn’t matter now she had all the information she needed.

0=0=0=0

Looking at her watch, Faith saw that it was nineteen-forty-five hours, looking at the hard eyed woman reflected in her mirror, she smiled, but not in a nice way. Gathering up her hair and twisting it into a bun on the back of her head, Faith secured it with a few hair pins before putting on her helmet. Opening the wallet that held her badge of office she slipped it into the holder on her body armour that was designed for just that purpose. Picking up her AS2 she checked that it was unloaded before turning and opening her door. Walking out into the corridor she headed on down towards the stairs as surprised and frightened students jumped out of the path of this one-woman army/angel of death. Leaving Potter Hall behind her Faith turned her feet towards Omega House, it shouldn’t take her more than five minutes to walk there and then the fun could begin.

0=0=0=0

Standing on the sidewalk outside Omega house, Faith noted that the Deltas were having a pretty boisterous sounding party. Good, she smiled, the noise they were making should help cover up the noise she’d be causing in a minute or two. Glancing at the tumbledown frat house, Faith hoped that none of her cadets were breaking the ‘Off Limits’ order put on Delta House by Captain Lemay and herself; it was something she’d have to check on Monday morning.

Slipping a magazine into the breech of her shot gun, Faith advanced on Omega’s front door. As she climbed the three steps up to the porch she cocked her weapon before pulling her goggles down to protect her eyes from flying wood splinters. Aiming her weapon at the door she fired twice; the big steel slugs took out the hinges and blew the door from its frame. Quickly, removing her first magazine and ejecting the shell in the breech of the weapon, Faith slipped a new magazine into her shotgun and cocked her weapon again before stepping over the wreckage of the door.

“Knock! Knock!” Faith called coldly as she scanned the hallway for new targets, “Federal Agent!” 

The sound of an Omega running into the hall to find out what the hell was going on caused Faith to turn to her right. Triggering the AS2 she fired a burst of three ‘bean-bags’. The non-lethal rounds hit the student in the chest and blew him off his feet. Watching as the student lay on the floor groaning and clutching his ribs, Faith turned again to find herself confronted by half a dozen students clutching baseball bats and hockey sticks.

Emptying the rest of the magazine into this group of belligerent students, Faith watched as they fell to the ground holding onto various parts of their bodies where the bean-bags had hit home. Smiling at a job well done, Faith started to look for the closet that would lead down into this secret basement; she soon found the closet in question. Ripping open the door, she paused to load another magazine of bean-bag rounds. Pulling the coats away from the rear door, Faith saw that the back of the closet appeared to be made of wood. Not bothering with Otter’s instructions she started to kick in the wooden planks that made up the rear wall of the closet.

Just as Faith was about half way through a bullet buried itself in the wall inches away from her head. Turning with inhuman speed and snatching the .45 automatic from the holster strapped to her right leg she saw Chip Diller pointing a weapon at her obviously about to fire again. Moving at full super-soldier speed, Faith raised her weapon, aimed and fired in less than a heart beat; falling to the floor with a neat hole between his eyes, Chip would no longer be a threat to anyone.

Turning back to her destruction of the back wall of the closet, Faith could hear cries of alarm and the sound of footsteps running up the stairs from below. Catching a glimpse of red robbed cultists, Faith triggered her shotgun again. Screams and cries of pain came to her ears as the cultists staggered and fell. Pushing her way through the remains of the wall, she emerged like some black uniformed sci-fi stormtrooper bent on the destruction of all of those who opposed her.

Stepping over the writhing bodies of a couple of injured cultists, Faith ejected her empty magazine and fitted a full one. Ahead of her she could see the shapes of several red robes as they panicked, unsure whether to run or attack. Again her shotgun spoke sending three round bursts of bean-bags into the huddled forms of the Omega cultists. Those who weren’t hit turned and fled down into the depths of the basement. Stepping over still more injured forms of wounded cultists Faith followed the survivors deeper into the basement.

The steps seemed like they went down forever, every so often a cultist who’d not heard the news that ‘Death’ was on her way, confronted Faith on the narrow stairway only to be blown out of her path by a burst of fire from her shotgun. By the time she’d reached the main chamber all the remaining uninjured cultists where standing in a huddle with their hands held in the air.

“OKAY!” Faith yelled, “Federal Agent an’ all that crap!” covering the cultists Faith stayed on the bottom step to block any attempt at escape.

Letting her eyes drift from the cultists, Faith saw a large chamber hacked out of the living rock. There were electric lights around the walls and a few traditional burning torches to provide illumination. There was a large hole in the middle of the floor and next to it an iron ring set into a stone half buried in the sandy floor. However of Willow there was no sign.

“Okay you assholes,” Faith ordered, “line up with ya noses touching the wall and ya hands on ya heads.”

Faith was really hoping that someone would have called the cops by now because she was going to need back-up to deal with all the prisoners; she made a mental note to call the local cops before doing this sort of thing again.

“Okay,” Faith grabbed hold of the nearest prisoner and forced the muzzle of her shotgun into his mouth, “you’ve got until I count to five to tell me where ya keep ya prisoners!”

“HMMMM!” the cultist cried wide-eyed and pointed urgently towards the far side of the room.

“Cool,” Faith smiled as she pulled the shotgun from the cultist’s mouth, “thank-you for helping your friendly Federal Authorities…NOW GET BACK UP AGAINST THE WALL!”

The cultist hurried to press his nose against the rough stone wall. The sound of a high pitched squeak, drew Faith’s attention away from the prisoners. There, across the chamber she could see Neidermyer with one arm around Willow’s neck and another pressing a 9mm Army issue Berretta pistol into her temple. It looked like Willow’s hands were tied behind her back and a wide piece of duct tape covered her mouth preventing her from speaking.

“Drop the cannon, bitch,” Neidermyer sneered, “or your girlfriend’s brains get splattered all over the ceiling.”

“Not gonna happen,” as Faith spoke she dropped her shotgun onto the sandy floor and had her pistol out and pointing at Neidermyer before he’d even registered that she’d moved.

“What the hell…?” Neidermyer looked and sounded confused, but only for a moment, he was soon back to his evil, slimy self, “You’ll never make the shot, bitch and even if by some miracle you hit me instead of you girlfriend I could still twitch and blow her brains out.”

Neidermyer was right, even when she shot him the chances were that an involuntary twitch could put a bullet into Willow’s head. Misreading Faith’s resigned sigh as one of defeat, Neidermyer relaxed a little and stood up straighter making himself an easier target for Faith’s bullets. Aiming carefully having decided that the time had come to try out that neat SAS thing; two rounds through the mouth, severing the spinal column and paralysing the target from the neck down for the short time it would take him to die.

Looking along the top of her pistol, Faith saw Neidermyer’s eyes widen with fear as he realised she was going for the shot. Firing twice in rapid succession, Faith saw her rounds hit on target, not giving Neidermyer the chance to fire. His brains exploded from the back of his head and decorated the chamber wall with tendrils of bloody red brain matter. Willow started to scream through her gag as she was splattered with Neidermyer’s blood.

Standing frozen in place Willow continued to scream and start to turn a worrying shade of red as Faith rushed over and pulled the tap from her mouth. Taking a huge lungful of air she screamed again as she started to collapse onto the floor.

“Shush, baby,” Faith put one arm around Willow’s heaving shoulders as she pulled her combat knife with her free hand and deftly cut Willow’s bonds, “its all over, ya gonna be alright…asshole’s dead ya not gonna be eaten by any evil snake thing…”

Willow threw-up on the sand and started to cough.

“There-there, honey,” Faith found she wasn’t sure what to say or how to act; comforting girlfriends who’d had the crap scared out of them was well out of her area of expertise. “I’m sorry ya got covered in blood,” she said as Willow started to dry heave, “but I had to shoot the asshole…” Faith shrugged at a loss what else she could say, “…sorry.”

Sitting uncertainly on the ground with a sobbing, coughing and none too fresh smelling witch next to her, Faith couldn’t help noticing that the cultists had run off. Oh-well, she thought, guys in red robes wouldn’t be that difficult to find. Noticing that Willow had stopped crying, throwing up and generally falling apart (not that Faith blamed her, she’d seen trained soldiers fall apart over less), Faith started to pull her gently to her feet.

“I’m sorry I got blood over ya dress,” Faith searched herself for something to wipe the blood off Willow’s dress and skin.

“No…no…that’s okay,” Willow gasped as she turned around and looked down at Neidermyer’s body. “THAT!” Willow kicked Neidermyer’s still body in the ribs, “Is for kidnapping me!” 

Faith jumped away from her girlfriend, she’d never seen her quite so angry before.

“And THAT!” Willow kicked the body again, “Is for keeping me chained up without bathroom facilities for twenty-four hours!”

No wonder Willow didn’t smell so sweet, Faith realised.

“You may think you’re dead and you’ve escaped me, buster,” Willow snarled at the corpse, “but I know people that can make eternity feel like…” Willow was lost for words, she’d been going to say eternity again but that wouldn’t sound right, “…like…like a VERY LONG TIME!”

“Hey-hey!” Faith walked back to Willow and held her again (while trying not to breathe too deeply, this was one time she could do without her super-soldier sense of smell), “he’s dead you’re alive, leave it at that…”

“Leave it like that!?” Willow screeched, “After what he….”

The sound of something large slithering up towards the chamber interrupted Willow’s tirade.

“MACHIDA!” Both women cried as one; in all the excitement they’d forgotten about the demon.

By the time the demon’s head appeared out of the hole in the centre of the chamber, Faith had turned, raised her pistol and was aiming it at the monster. With deceptive speed the demon rose from the hole and surveyed the mostly deserted chamber. The top of the creature looked like a human with arms and a chest on top of which was a misshapen almost human-like head. The rest of the demon looked like a ghostly, white, giant snake which never entirely came out of the hole in the floor.

Aiming at the demon’s head Faith emptied the last nine rounds in her magazine into the demon. It screamed and jerked to one side as the first few rounds hit it. By the time Faith’s pistol had run dry and she was reaching for a fresh magazine the monster had slumped to one side and was lying half in and half out of the opening in the floor. As Faith slapped home a fresh magazine the weight of the rest of the demon’s body started to drag it back into the hole and down to the fiery hell below.

Rushing over to the hole as the demon’s body disappeared into the dark below, she took a grenade from a pouch on her body armour, pulled the pin and dropped it in after the rapidly departing demon. There was a soft *CLINK-HISS!* just before the fragmentation grenade exploded and a ring of grey smoke rose from the hole. Walking back over to Willow, Faith put away her weapons and held her girlfriend’s hand in her own.

“Ya think I got it?” Faith asked.

“No,” Willow sighed and shook her head sadly, “but I doubt it’ll come back here again…you’ve probably banished it for a while so don’t feel too bad about it…”

“God damn-it!” Faith kicked at the floor, “I should have let ya magic it away.”

“No,” Willow smiled and shook her head, “I’m in no condition to do powerful spells, you did right shooting it. We’ll get it one day and do a permanent job, now…”

Just then a whole bunch of city police ran down the stairs and started to point guns every where.

“FEDERAL AGENTS!” Faith yelled menacingly which seemed to quiet the police’s demands that Faith and Willow should put their hands up.

“I love it when you do that,” Willow grinned, but then her face fell, “I was going to say that I could do with a shower and a change of clothes…” Willow eyed the cops as they moved about the chamber, “…but I guessing we got some questions to answer.”

“Yeah,” Faith nodded, “all about the students messing with black magic and kidnapping girls and killing them.” Faith had just run over the usual cover story for this sort of situation, “I’ll contact Colonel Mann, she’ll put the National Security-blanket on this so we should be okay.”

“Oh, yeah,” Willow still wasn’t used to actually being on the same side as the government, but it sure had its advantages; a look of worry crossed her face as she thought of something, “You won’t get into trouble with Colonel Mann about all this will you?”

Faith hadn’t exactly followed procedure on this one.

“Whatever,” Faith shrugged as she led Willow up the stairs and passed all the cops, “she’ll be pissed and yell about proper procedure and calling in back-up but she won’t be too angry, after all she’s only herself to blame.”

“She has?” asked Willow.

“Yeah,” Faith continued with an impish grin on her face, “When she recruited me I did warn her I was more ‘Action-girl’ than ‘Detective-girl’!”

“Yeah,” Willow agreed with a firm nod of the head, “all her own fault…should’a seen it coming!”

0=0=0=0


	17. Chapter 17

17.

_Oh, soon we'll be out amid the cold world's strife.  
Soon we'll be sliding down the razor blade of life.   
But as we go our sordid sep'rate ways,  
We shall ne'er forget thee, thou golden college days._

_Hearts full of youth,  
Hearts full of truth,  
Six parts gin to one part vermouth.*_

*:Tom Lehrer.

**About a week after Faith’s raid on Omega House.**

It was the Thursday after her raid on Omega House and Faith stood to one side of the lecture theatre and watched as students wandered in to take their seats. After everything that had happened, Dean Wormer was still pursuing his vendetta against Delta House; he’d even managed to rope Faith in on the act. There was going to be a Student’s Court of Enquiry into Delta’s actions during this semester and Faith was supposed to be playing the part of ‘Sergeant at Arms’. It was her own fault really, she shouldn’t have shot Neidermyer who had been the previous Sergeant at Arms (another example of Machida placing his followers in positions of power).

After checking that her uniform skirt was straight (the Dean had insisted that Faith should wear her uniform with all her ‘pretty’ ribbons and badges) she looked up to see Willow walk into the room and take a seat behind where Faith would be sitting. The two women exchanged smiles. After being rescued from Omega’s basement, Willow had recover rapidly from her ordeal; this had impressed Faith and made her think about her relationship with the witch. There were things that needed to be said between them, but that would have to wait until this comic opera court hearing was over.

Talking her seat, Faith shuffled the papers laid out on the desk in front of her, it was her job to read out the ‘charges’ and keep order in the court room. Having been an MP she was familiar with this sort of mission, maybe that was why Wormer had wanted her to do it. More likely he wanted her there as a visible symbol of his power; Faith had asked Captain Lemay if she should do the job. The Marine had shrugged his shoulders and told her it was up to her; in his opinion it was probably best if she agreed with the Dean’s request, ‘politics’ the Marine officer had said in a tone of voice that told Faith he liked it even less than she did.

Glancing once again at the charges against Delta House, Faith had to smile. It must have been some wild party and she was sorry to have missed it, but at the time she’d been having a party of her own over in Omega house. Noticing a drop in the level of noise in the room, Faith looked up to see the court officials file in.

“What the hell…!?” Faith turned around to look at Willow silently asking the question that was going through both of their minds ‘What the hell was Greg Marmalard doing here?’

As President of Omega House, Marmalard was implicated up to his neck in the black magic rituals in the basement that had led to the deaths of at least thirty young women over the last ten years. How the hell had he got bail on multiple murder charges? Obviously Machida’s influence was still at work here. In the long run it wouldn’t save him, he’d live out the rest of his life in a small cold cell in a prison on one of the Aleutian Islands, but it was still a shock to see him free and as smarmy as every.

The Court took their seats; Marmalard appeared to be filling the post of President of the Court and Barbara Jansen had the post of ‘Court Writer’. There were also three lecturers, one of whom was Professor Riegert who’s eyes opened wide with surprise when he saw Faith and realised she was the same woman who’d humiliated him in front of his students. There were two more lecturers whom Faith didn’t recognise. 

Following the court officials into the room and closing the door behind him was Dean Wormer. Frowning, Faith once again glanced back at Willow; ‘What’s he doing here?’ she mouthed only to get a shrug off Willow in reply. Being a conscientious soldier who tried to live up to the Army’s recruiting slogan of being ‘The Best She Could Be’, Faith had read up on Student Court procedure. One of the most important rules for any Court business was that the Dean should not be present either in person or by sending one of his officials. The Courts were supposed to be a way for the Student body to deal with things with only minor input from the faculty.

“Everything in order, Miss Lehane?” asked Dean Wormer as he paused in front of Faith’s desk.

“Erm, yeah, sure,” Faith began, “but should you be…”

The rest of what Faith was about to say was drowned out as Robert Hoover, Eric Stratton and Donald Schoenstein, the Delta House representatives walked in and took their seats as their frat brothers cheered and whistled. Scowling at the Delta’s the Dean walked away from Faith and took up a position in the corner of the hall.

“Please take your seats,” Greg called out as he banged his gavel and tried to restore some order to the proceedings; slowly the room settled down and something approaching silence fell on the crowd.

“This meeting of the disciplinary council will now come to order,” Greg said once he could be heard, “We’ll waive minutes and proceed directly with the charges against Delta Tau Chi…” Greg looked directly at Faith, “…Sergeant at Arms?”

This was Faith’s cue to do her party piece, getting to her feet she smoothed down her skirt (a nervous habit she’d developed over the years) before picking up the piece of paper with the charges against Delta neatly typed upon it.

“The following charges are brought,” Faith began in a clear strong voice, “First; that Delta House did knowingly violate the rules governing pledge recruitment by serving alcohol to freshman during pledge week and after established drinking hours.” 

Shaking her head slightly, Faith smiled to herself, most fraternities ‘served alcohol’ to freshman so, ‘big deal’.

“I’d like to address these charges one at a time,” Robert Hoover came to his feet and addressed the court.

“You’ll get your chance, smart guy!” Dean Wormer snapped from the corner of the room; Faith frowned harder not only wasn’t the Dean supposed to be in the room he certainly wasn’t supposed to say anything.

Sitting down slowly Hoover gave his buddies a worried look.

“Second,” Faith read again from the paper in her hand, “that for the fifth semester running, Delta had failed to achieve the required grade point average…”

Shaking her head, Faith thought these were pretty ‘chicken-shit’ charges so far, as did Hoover who was on his feet again.

“Half the Houses in college didn’t make grade,” Hoover pointed out only to be interrupted by the Dean.

“You will speak when you’re told to mister, and not before!” Dean Wormer growled from his corner.

“Finally,” Faith suppressed a heavy sigh, “that a ‘Roman Toga Party’ was held from which we have received more than three dozen reports of individual acts of perversion so profound and disgusting that decorum,” Faith looked hard at the paper in her hand not really believing that she was reading this crap out, “pro-prohibits,” she stifled a giggle and fought to keep her face straight, “listing them here…” Faith took a deep breath and controlled her amusement; it really _must_ have been one hell of a party. “These are the charges as recorded this day, faithfully submitted, Chief Warrant Officer Faith Lehane, US Army, Sergeant at Arms.”

There she’d done her part and could now sit down; now, perhaps, this ‘joke’ could be wrapped up and they could all get back to the real world.

“Well done,” rumbled the Dean from his corner.

“Robert Hoover will speak on behalf of Delta House,” Marmalard announced over the buzz of conversation that filled the room.

Getting to his feet to the accompaniment of loud applause from the rest of Delta House, Hoover turned to address the court.

“I don’t think you can fully judge a fraternity…” Hoover began only to be interrupted by the Dean.

“I think we’ve heard enough Mr Chairman…” Dean Wormer said tiredly.

“I was told I’d have a chance to speak…” Hoover pointed out.

“That’s enough!” called Marmalard.

So, this was what was going on, Faith looked from the Dean to Marmalard. It was becoming obvious, at least to Faith, that the Dean had made some sort of deal with Marmalard. In return for a Chairman who’d do his bidding, the Dean had probably promised some sort of protection or evidence that would prevent Marmalard from going to jail.

“The court will now render a decision,” Marmalard announced much to the verbal disgust of Delta House.

“You said…” Hoover tried to speak again.

“HE SAID, THAT’S IT!” yelled the Dean, “Are you deaf?” the Dean turned to look at Marmalard again, “Let’s finish this damn thing…”

“I don’t think its fair,” Hoover called over the jeers of his frat brothers.

“I’ll tell you what’s fair and what’s not,” replied the Dean.

Keeping her own thoughts to herself, Faith sat back in her seat. The Marine’s had a word for what was going on here, she’d learnt it back when she’d been posted to Camp Lejeune and that word was ‘clusterfuck’. This so-called court hearing was a clusterfuck that made a mockery of the democratic ideals she’d sworn to defend.

“A point of parliamentary procedure,” Eric Stratton stood up (this should be interesting, thought Faith), “Ladies and gentlemen,” Stratton walked from behind the desk occupied by Delta’s ‘Council’ and took centre stage, “I’ll be brief.”

“The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules,” Stratton walked up and down in front of the court having obviously watched one too many ‘courtroom dramas’, “or took a few liberties with our female party guests…we did.” Stratton looked straight at the Dean and winked. “But you can’t hold an entire fraternity responsible for the depraved behaviour of a few sick, perverted individuals,” Stratton’s voice dropped so the court had to strain to hear him. “If you do,” Stratton continued, “shouldn’t we blame the entire fraternity system?”

Faith found herself nodding her head in agreement with Stratton’s words, this guy was making sense.

“And if the whole fraternity system is guilty…”

Yeah, thought Faith it wasn’t just Delta House who should be on trial here, it was the system!

“…then isn’t this an indictment of all our educational institutions in general?” Stratton explained with growing confidence as the Delta’s clapped and cheered. “I put it to you Greg,” Stratton pointed his finger at Marmalard, “Isn’t this an indictment of our entire American society?”

Yeah, thought Faith, it was, she had to stop herself from jumping to her feet and arresting the Dean under the Patriot Act; there were more cheers from Delta House.

“Well…” Stratton paused for a moment, “…you can do what you want to us,” he told the court, “but we’re not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!”

The court room dissolved into loud, raucous cheers as Delta’s jumped to their feet and cheered Stratton to the rafters. Struggling to control her own feelings of disgust at the actions of the Dean and his cronies, Faith stood up slowly and reached for the badge in her pocket, if she moved quickly she could arrest the entire court for un-American activities, treason and probably terrorism; she’d work out what the charges were once she’d got them all safely under lock and key. As she rose to her feet, Faith felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning her head she looked into Willow’s eyes and found her head clearing of the feelings that Stratton had induced in her; now she understood what was going on here. Relaxing, she remained standing and waited for Willow to restore order.

“OKAY!” Willow yelled at the top of her voice, “EVERYONE SHUT UP AND SIT DOWN!”

In an instant everyone stopped talking as they gave each other confused looks and slowly began to sit down again. Turning to look at Willow, Stratton gasped as he realised her power. Shaking his head sadly he walked slowly back to his seat and sat down. Well that was it, he told himself, his simple compulsion spell couldn’t stand up against a witch of such power, she’d brushed his magics aside as if they’d been made out of cobwebs.

“Okay,” Willow said in her more normal tone, “thank-you,” she looked over at Faith, “Faith-honey I think you need to do your duty.”

“Yeah,” Faith agreed quietly, now that was what she called magic…wow! “Duty, yeah,” for a moment Faith was uncertain how to proceed. “Okay,” she found her voice and spoke up, “this court is adjourned and its finding are to be disregarded…”

“You can’t do that…!” Cried the Dean as spit flew from his lips.

“I freaking can and I freaking am!” Faith yelled back as if she was drilling a squad of particularly stupid recruits, “You’re lucky I don’t arrest you for…for…” just at the moment she couldn’t think of anything to arrest the Dean for but there was bound to be something. “Hey, look,” Faith pointed at Marmalard, “that asshole has been charged in connection with a dozen ritual slayings of young women, what’s he doing being chairman, huh?”

There were muttering of agreement from the audience.

“You go girl!” Willow cheered quietly from behind Faith.

“I’m beginning to think ya might have known what the Omegas were doin’ all along…” Faith pointed out.

“You can’t talk to the Dean like that!” Professor Riegert claimed.

“You sit ya fat ass down!” Faith pointed at Riegert, “I’ll talk to the dickwad-Dean however I want, okay?”

Shocked into silence, Riegert sat down as someone at the back of the hall started to hum the ‘Star Spangled Banner’.

“Now listen up,” Faith continued as the humming got louder, “I’m gonna write a full report to the Board of Governors and I’ll also be placing a report with the Faber City PD and the FBI.”

Dean Wormer and Marmalard gave each other worried looks as the humming got even louder.

“You total assholes,” Faith turned her attention back to the Dean and Marmalard, “did ya think I wouldn’t notice, did ya think I was just some ignorant GI Jane? You turned this temple of learning into a freakin’ den of deceit, by your immoral and wicked practices!” Faith felt the words flow into her mouth as she channelled Oliver Cromwell. “You’ve grown intolerable to the whole campus; you were elected by the people to get grievances redressed, and you’ve become the greatest grievance…” Faith paused and took a deep breath, “…I command you, upon peril of your lives, to depart immediately from this place; go, get out! Ya venal slaves, BE GONE!”

The entire audience was now on its feet cheering as the Dean and Marmalard hurriedly left the hall. Faith turned her head to see Willow smile into her eyes.

“Way to go girl,” Willow spoke over the cheers of the students who were now singing the national anthem as Wormer left the room. “I’m so proud of you Faith.”

“Will ya still be proud of me when I’m thrown outta the army next week?” Faith asked.

“I’ll always be proud of you, Sweetie, whatever you do,” Willow leant towards Faith and kissed her on the cheek.

0=0=0=0

**The following Tuesday.**

“Was Colonel Mann really angry?” Willow asked as she watched Faith pack her gear into her suitcases and bags.

“Oh,” Faith paused in her packing, “she was real pissed an’ yelled an’ went on about following procedure, but…”

“But?” Willow asked hopefully.

“But what with all the demons, vampires and human sacrifices, she couldn’t say too much,” Faith grinned, “so I’ve gotta change universities but that’s cool.”

“It is?” Willow asked hopefully; she could see how basically arresting the Dean would make her continued education at Faber ‘difficult’ to say the least.

“Yeah,” Faith’s grin got wider, “they’re sending me to a college in New York so I’ll be closer to home, see?”

“Closer to…” Willow smiled happily as she bounced across the room and hugged Faith like she’d never been hugged before, “…does that mean you wanna move in together?”

“Yeah,” Faith admitted, “we’ll still need to be careful but…” Faith paused before she said what needed to be said, “…y’know when those Omega assholes took you?”

“Erm, yeah,” Willow nodded as she held on to Faith.

“Well it made me think how much I’d miss you if ya ever…y’know…went away.” Faith ran her hands up and down Willow’s back, “I don’t want to feel that way again and I want to spend as much time as I can with you.”

“So do I…” Willow was about to say something about how that was how she felt when Faith went off on one of her army missions and got shot; but she didn’t because she remembered how dangerous her work with the Council could be.

“So ya okay with me moving in?” Faith asked.

“Of course,” Willow smirked happily, she’d have her girl with her…well, if not all the time then while the army wasn’t sending her out to save the world. “Hey,” Willow disentangled herself from Faith’s arms, “look I’ve got business to attend to…”

“Delta House?” Faith asked; Willow nodded, “You want back up?”

“No I’ll be fine,” Willow explained, “I’ve got a couple of spells up and running they won’t be able to do anything to harm me.”

“Ya sure?” Faith asked, “I can easily come with, provide some super soldier muscle, y’know?”

“No thanks,” Willow started to head for the door, “you stay here and finish your packing I’ll be back in half-an-hour.”

0=0=0=0

**Delta House.**

Standing in the middle of the main room of Delta house, Willow could feel all the demons around her. Now the air wasn’t charged with emotions she could see Delta House’s denizens for what they really were. They were demons but they weren’t really that dangerous, they certainly didn’t indulge in human sacrifice like the so-called humans next door had. Robert Hoover, the president of Delta House, stood up and came to stand just in front of Willow, he opened his mouth to speak but the witch silenced him with a wave of her hand.

“Don’t say a word,” Willow commanded, “any of you…” she took a deep breath, “…you all know who and what I am?” She watched as the demons nodded their heads, “Then you know what I could do to you?” Again the demons nodded, “Then you’ll no doubt be totally surprised to hear I’m not going to do anything…” a look of hope came to a dozen demonic faces, “…unless I hear that you’ve been up to your old tricks again.”

“Look, I’ll tell you what I’m going to do,” Willow turned so she was looking out the grubby window with her back to the demons. “I’m going to have a slayer put into Faber College just to keep an eye on things and if she reports anything otherworldly or if she goes missing I’ll be down here handing out great, big, biblical portions of vengeance, do you understand?”

The demons nodded their heads.

“Good,” Willow started to walk towards the front door, “and hey guys, how about cleaning this place up, huh?” Pausing in the doorway she fired her parting shot, “And what about the wacky notion of _graduating_?”

With the outraged gasps of the demons still echoing in her ears Willow headed on out the door and turned towards Faith’s dorm. She wasn’t going to kid herself, living with Faith wouldn’t be easy, it was something they’d both have to work at; plus there was the whole memory thing to deal with. But, at least with Faith near maybe she could work out what was stopping her remembering before she got round to asking Faith whether she wanted her memories back.

Oh, yes, Willow had learnt her lesson, no way was she going to just give Faith her memories back (if she actually could), sure she could tell Faith stuff, but did she want to know about ‘big-bad-pre-soldier-Faith? What about Faith’s life before Sunnydale? From what Willow’d heard that hadn’t been all puppies and kittens. No, when the time came…if the time came, Willow would only do what Faith wanted her to do, until then she’d lock the secret up inside her and pretend that it didn’t exist.

The End.

**Author’s Notes.**

What Oliver Cromwell actually said;

_“Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defil’d this sacred place, and turn’d the lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves become the greatest grievance…I command ye therefore, upon peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place; go, get you out! Ye venal slaves be gone!”_

The next story in the Military Faith series is ‘Retribution’, which to be honest hasn’t got much Faith or even Willow in it, but, it is set in the same reality and is part of the series.


End file.
